Academic literature on the topic 'NHC, NHC-metal complexes'

Over the past few decades, Ru catalyzed transfer hydrogenation (TH) and asymmetric transfer hydrogenation (ATH) reactions of unsaturated hydrocarbons, imine, nitro and carbonyl compounds have emerged as economic and powerful tools in organic synthesis. These reactions are most preferred processes having applications in the synthesis of fine chemicals to pharmaceuticals due to safe handling as these do not require hazardous pressurized H2 gas. The catalytic activity and selectivity of Ru complexes were investigated with a variety of ligands based on pincer NHC, cyclophane, half-sandwich, organophosphine etc. These ligands coordinate to Ru center in a proper orientation with a labile group replaced by H-source (like methanol, isopropanol, formic acid, dioxane, THF), which facilitate the β-hydrogen transfer to generate metal hydride species (Ru-H) and produce desired reduced product. This chapter describes the recent advances in TH and ATH reactions with homogeneous and heterogeneous Ru catalysts having different ligand environments and mechanistic details leading to their sustainable industrial applications.

The reduction of azobenzene 1 with catalyst 2 was reported (J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2012, 134, 11330) by Alexander T. Radosevich at Pennsylvania State University, representing a unique example of a nontransition metal-based two-electron redox catalysis platform. Wolfgang Kroutil at the University of Graz found (Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2012, 51, 6713) that diketone 4 was converted to piperidinium 5 with very high stereoselectivity using a transaminase followed by reduction over Pd/C. Dennis P. Curran at the University of Pittsburgh reported (Org. Lett. 2012, 14, 4540) that NHC-borane 7 is a convenient reducing agent for aldehydes and ketones, showing selectivity for the former as in the monoreduction of 6 to 8. A catalytic reduction of esters to ethers with Fe3(CO)12 and TMDS, as in the conversion of 9 to 10, was developed (Chem. Commun. 2012, 48, 10742) by Matthias Beller at the Leibniz-Institute for Catalysis. Meanwhile, iridium catalysis was used (Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2012, 51, 9422) by Maurice Brookhart at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill for the reduction of esters to aldehydes with diethylsilane (e.g., 11 to 12). As an impressive example of selective reduction, Ohyun Kwon at UCLA reported (Org. Lett. 2012, 14, 4634) the conversion of ester 13 to aldehyde 14, leaving the malonate moiety intact. The cobalt complex 16 was found (Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2012, 51, 12102) by Susan K. Hanson at Los Alamos National Laboratory to be an effective catalyst for C=O, C=N, and C=C bond hydrogenation, including the conversion of alkene 15 to 17. The use of frustrated Lewis pair catalysis for the low-temperature hydrogenation of alkenes such as 18 was developed (Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2012, 51, 10164) by Stefan Grimme at the University of Bonn and Jan Paradies the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology. Guanidinium nitrate was found (Chem. Commun. 2012, 48, 6583) by Kandikere Ramaiah Prabhu at the Indian Institute of Science to catalyze the hydrazine-based reduction of alkenes such as 20. The hydrogenation of thiophenes is difficult for a number of reasons, but now Frank Glorius at the University of Münster has developed (J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2012, 134, 15241) an effective system for the highly enantioselective catalytic hydrogenation of thiophenes and benzothiophenes, including 22.