Transfer hydrogenation of carbonyl compounds

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

Scheme 2.4 Experimental evidence in support of the mechanism for the base-free transfer hydrogenation of carbonyl compounds catalysed by complex 43...

Transfer hydrogenations of carbonyl compounds are often conducted using 2-propanol as the hydrogen donor. One advantage of this compound is that it can be used simultaneously as a solvent. A large excess of the hydrogen donor shifts the redox equilibrium towards the desired product (see also Section 20.3.1). 

There have been many reports of the use of iridium-catalyzed transfer hydrogenation of carbonyl compounds, and this section focuses on more recent examples where the control of enantioselectivity is not considered. In particular, recent interest has been in the use of iridium A -heterocyclic carbene complexes as active catalysts for transfer hydrogenation. However, alternative iridium complexes are effective catalysts [1, 2] and the air-stable complex 1 has been shown to be exceptionally active for the transfer hydrogenation of ketones [3]. For example, acetophenone 2 was converted into the corresponding alcohol 3 using only 0.001 mol% of this... 

Table 5.7 Transfer hydrogenation of carbonyl compounds with [Cp lr(H20)3f (24) and HCOONa in water at pH 3.2. ...

Meerwein-Pondorf-Verley reduction, discovered in the 1920s, is the transfer hydrogenation of carbonyl compounds by alcohols, catalyzed by basic metal compounds (e.g., alkoxides) [56-58]. The same reaction viewed as oxidation of alcohols [59] is called Oppenauer oxidation. Suitable catalysts include homogeneous as well as heterogeneous systems, containing a wide variety of metals like Li, Mg, Ca, Al, Ti, 2r and lanthanides. The subject has been reviewed recently [22]. In this review we will concentrate on homogeneous catalysis by aluminium. Most aluminium alkoxides will catalyze MPV reduction. 

Transfer hydrogenation of carbonyl compounds.4 Carbonyl compounds are reduced to alcohols by formic acid with this ruthenium catalyst in high yield without a solvent. 

Other chiral diamine-( -arene)ruthenium catalysts were developed by Noyori where the chirality was centred at the metal (see Figure 3.18). These complexes were effective catalysts for asymmetric transfer hydrogenation of carbonyl compounds and a mechanism involving a metal-ligand bifunctional process was proposed. 

Baniwati, B., Polshettiwar, V., Varma, R. S. (2009). Magnetically recoverable supported ruthenium catalyst for hydrogenation of alkynes and transfer hydrogenation of carbonyl compounds. Tetrahedron Letters, 50, 1215—1218. http //dx.doi.org/10.1016/ j.tetiet.2009.01.014. 

Cp Ir (NHC) complexes are known to be efficient catalysts in the transfer hydrogenation of carbonyl compounds. One of these catalysts has been used by Corberan and Peris in the one-pot enzymatic DKR of a jS-branched aldehyde. Thus, the treatment of this aldehyde by Amano lipase PS-D I and this catalyst at 80°C in the presence ofp-chlorophenyl acetate as the acyl donor provided the corresponding acetate in good yield, albeit with moderate enantioselectivity of 61% ee, as shown in Scheme 4.50. 

HRu(PCy3)2(CO)(CH3CN]BF4 for the transfer hydrogenation of carbonyl compounds. ... 

Gracia et al. (2009) investigated the transfer hydrogenation of carbonyl compounds to their corresponding alcohols using supported Pt and Pd nanoparticles on Al-SBA-15 materials under microwave irradiation with short times of reaction (15-30 min). 

Catalytic transfer reduction of carbonyl compounds. Aryl aldehydes and ketones are completely reduced by transfer of hydrogen from cyclohexene or limonene catalyzed by 10% Pd-C and a Lewis acid (FeCla, AICI3, even HaO). Alcohols are intermediates. ... 

While, transition metal complexes (mostly of Ru, Rh and Ir) have been widely studied in homogenous TH of ketones, much less attention has been devoted to the hydrogen transfer reduction of carbonyl compounds under heterogeneous conditions. Generally, homogeneous catalysts are far more active and selective than... 

Shvo s catalyst 1 is a cyclopentadienone-ligated dimthenium complex, [Ru2(CO)4 (/t-H)(C4Ph4COHOCC4Ph4)]. It was first synthesized in 1984 by Shvo et al. [1, 2], Since then it has been widely applied in various hydrogen transfer reactions, including hydrogenation of carbonyl compounds [2, 3], transfer hydrogenation of ketones and imines [4,5], disproportion of aldehydes to esters [6], and Oppenauer-type oxidations of alcohols [7-9] and amines [10-12]. Shvo s complex 1 has also been found to be effective as a racemization catalyst for secondary alcohols and amines, and complex 1 has therefore been used together with enzymes in several dynamic kinetic resolution (DKR) protocols [13-18]. 

The control of enantioselectivity in the reduction of carbonyl compounds provides an opportunity for obtaining the product alcohols in an enantiomerically enriched form. For transfer hydrogenation, such reactions have been dominated by the use of enantiomerically pure ruthenium complexes [33, 34], although Pfaltz and coworkers had shown by 1991 that high levels of enantioselectivity could be obtained using iridium(I) bis-oxazoline complexes [35]. 

A robust and highly active catalyst for water-phase, acid-catalyzed THs of carbonyl compounds at pH 2.0-3.0 at 70 °C was disclosed by Ogo and coworkers [60]. The water-soluble hydride complex [Cp lr(bipy)H] (72, Cp = Tl -CsMes, bipy = 2,2 -bipyridine) was synthesized from the reaction of [Cp lr(bipy)(H20)] (73) with HCOOX (X = H or Na) in H2O under controlled pH conditions (2.0 < pH < 6.0, 25 °C). The pH control is pivotal in avoiding protonation of the hydrido ligand of 72 below pH ca. 1.0 and deprotonation of the aquo ligand of 73 above pH ca. 6.0. The rate of the reaction is heavily dependent on the pH of the solution, the reaction temperature, and the concentration of HCOOH. High TOFs of the acid-catalyzed transfer hydrogenations at pH 2.0-3.0, ranging from 150 to 525 h, were observed for a variety of linear and cyclic ketones, as summarized in Table 4.5. 

In an earlier report, Maitlis et al. showed that 1 could be easily converted into a hydrido complex [Cp lrHCl]2 (2) under ambient conditions by treatment with alcohol and a weak base (Scheme 5.1) [19], probably accompanied by the formation of carbonyl compounds. This fact means that the hydrogen atom in an alcohol can be rapidly transferred to the iridium center in the form of a hydride but then, if the hydride on the iridium could be re-transferred to another hydrogen acceptor, a new catalytic system using alcohols as substrates might be realized. In fact, a wide variety of Cp Ir complex-catalyzed hydrogen transfer systems using alcohols as substrates, and based on the above hypothesis, have been reported to date [20]. 

Electrocatalytic hydrogenation is also achieved by reaction of carbonyl compounds with aluminium and nickel(ll) chloride in tetrahydrofuran. Nickel(li) is reduced to finely divided nickel(o) which is deposited on the aluminium.This se-tsup corrosion cells where aluminium dissolves, liberating electrons which are transferred to the nickel. Protons are then reduced to hydrogen at the nickel surface. Hydrogenation of benzaldehydes to the alcohol has been effected under these conditions [206]. 

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