New ligands of the benzo[h]quinoline class and transition metal complexes containing them and use of said complexes as catalysts

Transition metal complexes represented by the general formula (II)

• [MXLmL′] (II)
• wherein M, X, L and L′ can be:
• M, a group VIII transition metal selected from iron, ruthenium and osmium;
• X, a halogen, a hydrogen, an alkoxide (OR);
• L, ligand selected from the groups comprising:
• a) a monodentate phosphine of general formula PR1R2R3 where R1, R2 and R3 can be equal or different and can be aliphatic or aromatic groups;
• b) a bidentate phosphine of PR′2—Z—PR″z type where Z is an optionally substituted hydrocarbon chain with preference for diphosphines of PR′2(CH2)xPR″2, with x being equal to 2, 3 or 4, where R′ and R″ can be equal or different and can be aliphatic or aromatic groups;
• c) an optically active diphosphine;
• and m can be equal to 1 or 2 with the proviso that m is equal to 1 when the ligand L is selected from group b) or c) and is equal to 2 when the ligand L is selected from group a) and that in this case the ligands L can be equal or different;
• L′, a tridentate cyclometalated ligand derived from benzo[h]quinoline, with a —CHR1—NH2 group in position 2, of CNN type of formula (Ib)
• where R1 can be H, or an aliphatic or aromatic group and where R2, R3 and R4 can be equal or different and can be hydrogen atoms, aliphatic and aromatic groups, halogen atoms, alkoxo groups, nitro groups, cyano groups.