An Additional Coordination Group Leads to Extremely Efficient Chiral Iridium Catalysts for Asymmetric Hydrogenation of Ketones

摘要

The production of enantiopure chiral compounds is important for pharmaceutical and agrochemical industries because enantiomers can exhibit distinct biological activities. Therefore, processes that directly produce the desired enantiomer are desirable. First reported by Knowles, Horner et al. in 1968, catalytic asymmetric hydrogenation of unsaturated compounds such as olefins, ketones, and imines is one of the most commonly used methods for producing enantiopure chiral compounds. Great progress has been made in this field, and many chiral catalysts are developed for a wide range of unsaturated substrates.