Rhodium(III) NCN pincer complexes catalyzed transfer hydrogenation of ketones

✍ Scribed by Mathiyazhagan Ulaganatha Raja; Rengan Ramesh; Kyo Han Ahn

• Publisher: Elsevier Science
• Year: 2009
• Tongue: French
• Weight: 793 KB
• Volume: 50
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0040-4039
• DOI: 10.1016/j.tetlet.2009.09.152

✦ Synopsis

Air-stable monomeric rhodium(III) NCN pincer complexes were synthesized via direct C-H bond activation of 1,3-bis(2-pyridyloxy)benzene, 3,5-bis(2-pyridyloxy)toluene and 3,5-bis(2-pyridyloxy)anisole with RhCl 3 Á3H 2 O in ethanol under reflux. The synthesized complexes were characterized by elemental analysis and 1 H NMR. One of the complexes was structurally characterized by X-ray analysis. An investigation into the catalytic activity of the complex 1a as catalyst for transfer hydrogenation of ketones to alcohols at 82 °C in the presence of iPrOH/KOH was undertaken with the conversions up to 99%.