Bell Sharon, Wüstenberg Bettina, Kaiser Stefan, Menges Frederik, Netscher Thomas, Pfaltz Andreas
Department of Chemistry, University of Basel, St. JohannsRing 19, CH-4056 Basel, Switzerland.
Science. 2006 Feb 3;311(5761):642-4. doi: 10.1126/science.1121977. Epub 2005 Dec 8.
Asymmetric hydrogenation of olefins is one of the most useful reactions for the synthesis of optically active compounds, especially in industry. However, the application range of the catalysts developed so far is limited to alkenes with a coordinating functional group or an aryl substituent next to the double bond. We have found a class of chiral iridium catalysts that give high enantioselectivity in the hydrogenation of unfunctionalized, trialkyl-substituted olefins. Because these catalysts do not require the presence of any particular functional group or aryl substituent in the substrate, they considerably broaden the scope of asymmetric hydrogenation.
烯烃的不对称氢化是合成光学活性化合物最有用的反应之一，尤其是在工业上。然而，迄今为止开发的催化剂的应用范围仅限于双键旁带有配位官能团或芳基取代基的烯烃。我们发现了一类手性铱催化剂，它们在未官能化的三烷基取代烯烃的氢化反应中具有高对映选择性。由于这些催化剂不需要底物中存在任何特定的官能团或芳基取代基，它们大大拓宽了不对称氢化的范围。
