Selective deoxygenation of sugar polyols to alpha,omega-diols and other oxygen content reduced materials--a new challenge to homogeneous ionic hydrogenation and hydrogenolysis catalysis.

An oxygen atom on every carbon--this is the problem! While nature provides linear C(3) to C(6) building blocks in the form of sugar alcohols in large and renewable abundance, they are overfunctionalized for the purpose of most chemical applications. Selective deoxygenation by anthropogenic catalyst systems may be one answer to this challenge.