Vicinal diols catalytic deoxygenation

Improved Catalytic Deoxygenation of Vicinal Diols and Application to Alditols... 

Judicious modification of the ligand environment in LReOs complexes allows successful catalytic deoxygenation of vicinal diols using PPha as terminal reductant. There is a steric bias toward diol units at the end of a linear chain (versus internal diols) and for erythro internal diols over threo. The potential for synthetic applications is discussed. 

Scheme 3. Catalytic deoxygenation of vicinal diols with Tp ReOs.

We have successfully demonstrated the principle of selective catalytic reductive deoxygenation of vicinal diols. The challenges inherent to this transformation have hindered development of carbohydrate-based organic feedstock chemistry. While there remain aspects of our chemistry that keep it a laboratory methodology, there is now a clear route to development. 

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