Dihydride route, transfer hydrogenation

In order to distinguish between the dihydridic and the monohydridic routes in hydrogen-transfer reactions, Backvall and coworkers developed an optically active a-deuterated alcohol. If the dihydridic route was occurring the deuterium would be scrambled between carbon and oxygen atoms whereas if the monohydridic... 

Recent mechanistic studies on transition metal-catalysed hydrogen transfer reactions have been reviewed. Experimental and theoretical studies showed that hydrogen transfer reactions proceed through different pathways. For transition metals, hydridic routes are the most common. Within the hydridic family there are two main groups the monohydride and dihydride routes. Experimentally, it was found that whereas rhodium and iridium catalysts favour the monohydride route, the mechanism for ruthenium catalysts proceeds by either pathway, depending on the ligands. A direct hydrogen transfer mechanism has been proposed for Meerwein-Ponndorf-Verley (MPV) reductions.352... 

Successive hydrogen transfers within 60, followed by coordination of olefin and then H2 (an unsaturate route), constitute the catalytic cycle, while isomerization is effected through HFe(CO)3(7r-allyl) formed from 59. Loss of H2 from 60 was also considered to be photoinduced, and several hydrides, including neutral and cationic dihydrides of iridium(III) (385, 450, 451), ruthenium(II) (452) and a bis(7j-cyclopentadienyltungsten) dihydride (453), have been shown to undergo such reductive elimination of hydrogen. Photoassisted oxidative addition of H2 has also been dem-... 

Details of the various steps which will depend on the substrates and donors involved, are usually not well understood. Prior coordination of the donor followed by that of the substrate, equivalent to a hydride route (Section II,A), is also possible (494, 496). Formation of intermediate dihydrides from a donor (e.g., from an alcohol via oxidative addition to give a hydrido-alkoxide, and then /8-hydrogen transfer) has also been invoked (491, 492, 496, 499, 500) in mechanistic terms, the hydrogenations then become equivalent to using molecular hydrogen for the reductions. The /3-hydrogen transfer step is usually considered rate-determining (494, 496). 

Whatever the route to a rhodium dihydride alkene complex, the hydrogen must be transferred sequentially to the double bond. It had always been assumed that the first C-H bond is formed / to the amido-group, so that the more stable Rh-substrate chelate is formed. This is the alkylhydride isomer observed in stoichiometric NMR studies at low temperatures, and is supported by studies under catalytic turnover conditions, assuming a normal isotope effect... 

Scheme 1, which shows reaction pathways available for hydrogenation of alkenes using dihydride catalysts , has been developed largely from studies on Rh catalysts. The steps define the hydride route, and Kg,k2 the unsaturated route via oxidative addition of H2 to the metal-alkene complex. The common key dihydride-alkene intermediate 1 gives the saturate product wifii regeneration of catalyst M via two successive hydrogen atom transfer steps k. The and equilibria are usually established... 

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