Journal of the American Chemical Society, Vol.137, No.32, 10177-10181, 2015
Highly Efficient Rh-Catalyzed Asymmetric Hydrogenation of alpha,beta-Unsaturated Nitriles
A highly efficient enantioselective hydrogenation of alpha,beta-unsaturated nitriles catalyzed by Rh-(R,R)-f-spiroPhos complex has been developed. With Rh-(R,R)-f-spiroPhos catalyst and under mild conditions, a wide range of alpha,beta-unsaturated nitriles including the (E)- and (Z)-isomers of 3-alkyl-3-aryl, 3,3-diaryl, and 3,3-dialkyl alpha,beta-unsaturated nitriles were hydrogenated to the corresponding chiral nitriles with excellent enantioselectivities (up to 99.9% ee) and high turnover numbers (TON up to 10,000).