Highly Reactive Chiral Pincer Ruthenium Complexes for Reduction of Ketones

Significance

The authors reported the novel chiral pincer ruthenium complexes [RuCl(CNN)(Josiphos)] prepared by treating [RuCl₂(Ph_3P)₂] with chiral Josiphos and racemic pincer ligands (CNN). It is noted that these pincer complexes efficiently catalyzed both asymmetric transfer hydrogenation (TH) and hydrogenation (HY) of carbonyl compounds, which is quite rare with ruthenium systems.