Rhodium transfer hydrogenation

Finally, the use of S/P ligands derived from (i )-binaphthol has been considered by Gladiali et al. in the asymmetric rhodium-catalysed hydrogen-transfer reduction of acetophenone performed in the presence of i-PrOH as the hydrogen donor.It was noted that racemisation occurred when the reaction time increased and consequently the corresponding alcohol was obtained in only low enantioselectivities (< 5% ee) as shown in Scheme 9.21. Similar results were more recently reported by these authors by using iridium combined with the same ligands. ... 

Directed intramolecular transfer hydrogenations are catalyzed by rhodium complexes with the pendant alkene acting as an internal sacrificial olefin (Equation (39)). 

Water-soluble complexes constitute an important class of rhodium catalysts as they permit hydrogenation using either molecular hydrogen or transfer hydrogenation with formic acid or propan-2-ol. The advantages of these catalysts are that they combine high reactivity and selectivity with an ability to perform the reactions in a biphasic system. This allows the product to be kept separate from the catalyst and allows for an ease of work-up and cost-effective catalyst recycling. The water-soluble Rh-TPPTS catalysts can easily be prepared in situ from the reaction of [RhCl(COD)]2 with the sulfonated phosphine (Fig. 15.4) in water [17]. 

Transition-metal catalysts are, in general, more active than the MPVO catalysts in the reduction of ketones via hydrogen transfer. Especially, upon the introduction of a small amount of base into the reaction mixture, TOFs of transition-metal catalysts are typically five- to 10-fold higher than those of MPVO catalysts (see Table 20.7, MPVO catalysts entries 1-20, transition-metal catalysts entries 21-53). The transition-metal catalysts are less sensitive to moisture than MPVO catalysts. Transition metal-catalyzed reactions are frequently carried out in 2-propanol/water mixtures. Successful transition-metal catalysts for transfer hydrogenations are based not only on iridium, rhodium or ruthenium ions but also on nickel [93], rhenium [94] and osmium [95]. It has been reported that... 

Rhodium diphosphine catalysts can be easily prepared from [Rh(nbd)Cl]2 and a chiral diphosphine, and are suitable for the hydrogenation of imines and N-acyl hydrazones. However, with most imine substrates they exhibit lower activities than the analogous Ir catalysts. The most selective diphosphine ligand is bdppsuif, which is not easily available. Rh-duphos is very selective for the hydrogenation of N-acyl hydrazones and with TOFs up to 1000 h-1 would be active enough for a technical application. Rh-josiphos complexes are the catalysts of choice for the hydrogenation of phosphinyl imines. Recently developed (penta-methylcyclopentyl) Rh-tosylated diamine or amino alcohol complexes are active for the transfer hydrogenation for a variety of C = N functions, and can be an attractive alternative for specific applications. 

Fig. 35.4 Outline mechanism for the rhodium-catalyzed enantioselective transfer hydrogenation reaction.

Alcohols will serve as hydrogen donors for the reduction of ketones and imi-nium salts, but not imines. Isopropanol is frequently used, and during the process is oxidized into acetone. The reaction is reversible and the products are in equilibrium with the starting materials. To enhance formation of the product, isopropanol is used in large excess and conveniently becomes the solvent. Initially, the reaction is controlled kinetically and the selectivity is high. As the concentration of the product and acetone increase, the rate of the reverse reaction also increases, and the ratio of enantiomers comes under thermodynamic control, with the result that the optical purity of the product falls. The rhodium and iridium CATHy catalysts are more active than the ruthenium arenes not only in the forward transfer hydrogenation but also in the reverse dehydrogenation. As a consequence, the optical purity of the product can fall faster with the... 

Brunner, Leitner and others have reported the enantioselective transfer hydrogenation of alpha-, beta-unsaturated alkenes of the acrylate type [50]. The catalysts are usually rhodium phosphine-based and the reductant is formic acid or salts. The rates of reduction of alkenes using rhodium and iridium diamine complexes is modest [87]. An example of this reaction is shown in Figure 35.8. Williams has shown the transfer hydrogenation of alkenes such as indene and styrene using IPA [88]. 

Typically, heterogeneous transfer hydrogenations are carried out at higher temperatures. The Noyori-Ikariya ruthenium arene catalysts are stable up to temperatures around 80 °C, whilst the rhodium and iridium CATHy catalysts are... 

BINAP has been extensively used for the asymmetric hydrogenation, transfer hydrogenation and isomerisation of double bonds using both ruthenium and rhodium complexes. 

While this manuscript was under preparation, a considerable number of examples of sohd-phase-attached catalysts appeared in the literature which is a clear indication for the dynamic character of this field. These include catalysts based on palladium [131, 132], nickel [133] and rhodium [134] as well applications in hydrogenations including transfer hydrogenations [135, 136] and oxidations [137]. In addition various articles have appeared that are dedicated to immobilized chiral h-gands for asymmetric synthesis such as chiral binol [138], salen [139], and bisoxa-zoline [140] cinchona alkaloid derived [141] complexes. 

The treatment of [Cp MCl2]2 (M = Rh and Ir) with (S,S)-TsDPEN gave chiral Cp Rh and Cp Ir complexes (12a and 12b Scheme 5.9). An asymmetric transfer hydrogenation of aromatic ketones using complex 12 was carried out in 2-propanol in the presence of aqueous KOH (1 equiv.) the results obtained are summarized in Table 5.4. In all of the reactions, the (S)-alcohols were obtained with more than 80% enantiomeric excess (ee) and in moderate to excellent yields. The rhodium catalyst 12a was shown to be considerably more active than the iridium catalyst... 

The first use of a metal catalyst in the DKR of secondary alcohols was reported by Williams et al. [7]. In this work, various rhodium, iridium, ruthenium and aluminum complexes were tested. Among them, only Rh2(OAc)4 and [Rh(cod)Cl]2 showed reasonable activity as the racemization catalyst in the DKR of 1-phenylethanol. The racemization occurred through transfer-hydrogenation reactions and required stoichiometric amounts of ketone as hydrogen acceptor. The DKR of 1-phenylethanol performed with Rh2(OAc)4 and Pseudomonas Jluore-scens lipase gave (R)-l-phenylethyl acetate of 98%e.e. at 60% conversion after 72 h. 

An excellent review describing asymmetric transfer hydrogenation has been published156. Many excellent results have been achieved in recent studies of acrylic acid reductions employing the same catalysts of ruthenium or rhodium with a chiral diphosphine as were used in the hydrogen gas process1331157. In this case, however, the most common hydrogen source is the combination of formic acid with an amine. The choice of amine is often critical in the reduction shown in Scheme 30, the use... 

Anomalous concentration dependence observed in the asymmetric transfer hydrogenation of imines with formic acid, catalysed by chiral rhodium-diamine complexes, has been attributed to the participation of both reactant and product in the formation of formate salt. The probable resting state of the catalyst is a rhodium hydride species.373... 

Transfer hydrogenation of aromatic ketones has been carried out in high yield and ee using propan-2-ol and a catalyst generated in situ from an iridium(I) [or rhodium(I)] hydride and a franx-l,2-diaminocyclohexane ligand.306... 

The type 6 carbenes have been used as ligands in the rhodium(I) and iridium(I)-catalyzed transfer hydrogenation of ketones displaying low to moderate stereoselectivities in the conversion of most substrates. Somewhat higher enantioselectivities were obtained with complex 8b containing the chiral C2-symmetric carbene derived from 7 (Scheme 9). 

Compared to the rhodium-catalyzed stereoselective reactions, studies on the iridium-catalyzed reactions have been limited until recently. Usually lower selectivities have been observed in the Ir(i)-catalyzed reactions.459,460 The asymmetric hydrosilylation of imines affords optically active secondary amines. These are very valuable compounds, but the studies on that reaction are quite limited.461 Close examinations of these reactions revealed that they proceed via a transfer hydrogenation. Other conditions such as the 2-propanol/base system in the presence of an appropriate metal complex have been employed as well, but only low selectivities were obtained.462... 

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