Improved Catalytic Deoxygenation of Vicinal Diols and Application to Alditols

摘要

Judicious modification of the ligand environment in LReO_3 complexes allows successful catalytic deoxygenation of vicinal diols using PPh_3 as terminal reductant. There is a steric bias toward diol units at the end of a linear chain (versus internal diols) and for erythro internal diols over threo. The potential for synthetic applications is discussed.