Alcohols transfer hydrogenation

Alcohols are used in large excess (e.g., as solvent) to shift the reaction to the desired product because, during the transfer, hydrogenation alcohols are oxidized to ketones or aldehydes that can compete with the substrate. The reaction is of the radical type, with the formation of radical intermediates obtained by abstracting a hydrogen atom from the a position to the hydroxyl group of individual alcohols (Brezova, Blazkova, Surina, Havlinova, 1997 Kaise et al., 1994). 

This mechanism is supported by the outcome of experiments with D2O as solvent. The resulting alcohol 2 does not contain carbon-bonded deuterium, indicating that the transferred hydrogen comes from a second substrate molecule, and not from the solvent. 

In mechanistic studies, monodeuterated alcohols were obtained by using PrOD (Scheme 14). These results indicate that the intermediate for this transfer hydrogenation was not a dihydride complex but rather a monohydride complex, which was generally accepted by analogous transition-metal-catalyzed reactions [55-57]. 

The catalytic alcohol racemization with diruthenium catalyst 1 is based on the reversible transfer hydrogenation mechanism. Meanwhile, the problem of ketone formation in the DKR of secondary alcohols with 1 was identified due to the liberation of molecular hydrogen. Then, we envisioned a novel asymmetric reductive acetylation of ketones to circumvent the problem of ketone formation (Scheme 6). A key factor of this process was the selection of hydrogen donors compatible with the DKR conditions. 2,6-Dimethyl-4-heptanol, which cannot be acylated by lipases, was chosen as a proper hydrogen donor. Asymmetric reductive acetylation of ketones was also possible under 1 atm hydrogen in ethyl acetate, which acted as acyl donor and solvent. Ethanol formation from ethyl acetate did not cause critical problem, and various ketones were successfully transformed into the corresponding chiral acetates (Table 17). However, reaction time (96 h) was unsatisfactory. 

The transfer hydrogenations of carbonyl compounds to alcohols catalysed by a variety of NHC complexes have been intensively studied. The strong bond... 

In the sixth chapter the activation of O-H bonds of water, alcohols and carboxylic acids, and their addition to multiple bonds is reported. Since the formally oxidative addition of ROH gives rise to hydrido(hydroxo) complexes, [MH(OR)Ln] which are postulated as intermediates in many important reactions (water gas shift reaction, Wacker-chemistry, catalytic transfer hydrogenations etc.) the authors of this chapter,... 

On the other hand, one of the first chiral sulfur-containing ligands employed in the asymmetric transfer hydrogenation of ketones was introduced by Noyori el al Thus, the use of A-tosyl-l,2-diphenylethylenediamine (TsDPEN) in combination with ruthenium for the reduction of various aromatic ketones in the presence of i-PrOH as the hydrogen donor, allowed the corresponding alcohols to be obtained in both excellent yields and enantioselectivities, as... 

As another successful application of Noyori s TsDPEN ligand, Yan et al. reported the synthesis of antidepressant duloxetine, in 2008. Thus, the key step of this synthesis was the asymmetric transfer hydrogenation of 3-(dime-thylamino)-l-(thiophen-2-yl)propan-l-one performed in the presence of (5,5)-TsDPEN Ru(II) complex and a HCO2H TEA mixture as the hydrogen donor. The reaction afforded the corresponding chiral alcohol in both high yield and enantioselectivity, which was further converted in two steps into expected (5)-duloxetine, as shown in Scheme 9.17. 

Transfer hydrogenation in the alcohol-ketone system on metal catalysts was investigated by Patterson et al. In particular, by studying the reaction between 2-propanol and butanone on Cu they concluded that it must be a direct surface reaction (11), the mechanism being essentially a proton transfer in the adsorbed phase (Scheme 2). 

Therefore, the high activity of Cu/Si02 in transferring hydrogen from a donor alcohol may be due not only, as already mentioned, to its ability to activate molecular H2, but also to its dehydrogenation activity. 

Apart from the Meerwin-Ponndorf-Verley (MPV) reaction,16 18catalytic asymmetric transfer hydrogenation has remained quite primitive,111,112 with successful examples of reduction of activated olefins, using alcohols or formic acid as hydrogen source, being reported only recently.113,114... 

In this latter hydridic route for hydrogen transfer from alcohols to ketones, two additional possibilities can be considered one involving a metal hydride arising purely from a C—11 (path 2a), and another in which it may originate from both the O—11 and C—I I (path 2b) in this case any of the hydrides on the metal may add to the carbonyl carbon. 

Among the most active catalysts for the asymmetric transfer hydrogenation of prochiral ketones and imines to chiral alcohols and amines are arene-ruthenium(II) amino-alcohol (or primary/ secondary 1,2-diamine)-based systems, with an inorganic base as co-catalyst, developed by Noyori139-141 and further explored by others (Scheme 27).142-145... 

Iridium-catalyzed transfer hydrogenation of aldehyde 73 in the presence of 1,1-dimethylallene promotes tert-prenylation [64] to form the secondary neopentyl alcohol 74. In this process, isopropanol serves as the hydrogen donor, and the isolated iridium complex prepared from [Ir(cod)Cl]2, allyl acetate, m-nitrobenzoic acid, and (S)-SEGPHOS is used as catalyst. Complete levels of catalyst-directed diastereoselectivity are observed. Exposure of neopentyl alcohol 74 to acetic anhydride followed by ozonolysis provides p-acetoxy aldehyde 75. Reductive coupling of aldehyde 75 with allyl acetate under transfer hydrogenation conditions results in the formation of homoallylic alcohol 76. As the stereochemistry of this addition is irrelevant, an achiral iridium complex derived from [Ir(cod)Cl]2, allyl acetate, m-nitrobenzoic acid, and BIPHEP was employed as catalyst (Scheme 5.9). 

The concept of performing microwave synthesis in room temperature ionic liquids (RTIL) as reaction media has been applied to several different organic transformations (Scheme 4.18), such as 1,3-dipolar cycloaddition reactions [54], catalytic transfer hydrogenations [55], ring-closing metathesis [56], the conversion of alcohols to alkyl halides [57, 58], and several others [59-61],... 

Noyori and coworkers reported well-defined ruthenium(II) catalyst systems of the type RuH( 76-arene)(NH2CHPhCHPhNTs) for the asymmetric transfer hydrogenation of ketones and imines [94]. These also act via an outer-sphere hydride transfer mechanism shown in Scheme 3.12. The hydride transfer from ruthenium and proton transfer from the amino group to the C=0 bond of a ketone or C=N bond of an imine produces the alcohol or amine product, respectively. The amido complex that is produced is unreactive to H2 (except at high pressures), but readily reacts with iPrOH or formate to regenerate the hydride catalyst. 

Sasson and Rempel [97] showed that the system [(PPh3)3RuCl2]/secondary alcohol is suitable for the selective transformation of 1,1,1,3-tetrachloro into 1,1,3-trichloro compounds. Similarly, Blum and coworkers [98, 99] employed [(PPh3)3RuCl2] as well as polystyrene-anchored Rh, Ru and Ir complexes for the hydrogen transfer from alcohols to trihalomethyl compounds, leading to dihalo-methyl derivatives. For example, one of the Cl atoms of 2,2,2-trichloro-l-phenyl-ethanol was displaced by H at 140-160 °C in 2-propanol. The polymer-anchored catalysts proved to be resistant to leaching [99]. 

Hydrogen transfer reactions are reversible, and recently this has been exploited extensively in racemization reactions in combination with kinetic resolutions of racemic alcohols. This resulted in dynamic kinetic resolutions, kinetic resolutions of 100% yield of the desired enantiopure compound [30]. The kinetic resolution is typically performed with an enzyme that converts one of the enantiomers of the racemic substrate and a hydrogen transfer catalyst that racemizes the remaining substrate (see also Scheme 20.31). Some 80 years after the first reports on transfer hydrogenations, these processes are well established in synthesis and are employed in ever-new fields of chemistry. 

Alcohols have always been the major group of hydrogen donors. Indeed, they are the only hydrogen donors that can be used in Meerwein-Ponndorf-Verley (MPV) reductions. 2-Propanol (16) is most commonly used both in MPV reductions and in transition metal-catalyzed transfer hydrogenations. It is generally available and cheap, and its oxidation product, acetone (14), is nontoxic and can usually be removed readily from the reaction mixture by distillation. This may have the additional advantage that the redox equilibrium is shifted even more into the direction of the alcohol. As a result of sigma inductive electronic ef-... 

The next step in the use of transfer hydrogenation catalysts for recycling of the unwanted enantiomer is the dynamic kinetic resolution. This is a combination of two reaction systems (i) the continuous racemization of the alcohol via hydrogen transfer and (ii) the enantioselective protection of the alcohol using a... 

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