Iridium-Catalyzed Asymmetric Hydrogenation of Ketones

Significance

The synthesis of enantiopure chiral compounds is commonly achieved via metal-catalyzed asymmetric hydrogenation methods. This approach has the advantage that the starting materials used (achiral unsaturated compounds containing olefins, ketones, or imines) are generally commercially available or easily accessible. The authors report an efficient asymmetric iridium-catalyzed hydrogenation of ketones for the synthesis of chiral secondary alcohols. They describe catalyst design that enables the method to avoid catalyst deactivation and furthermore achieve TONs up to 4,550,000 and enantioselectivities up to 99.9%.