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Published on: November 9, 2019
Titanium-Catalyzed Exhaustive Reduction of Oxo-Chemicals
Bo Han1,2, Chunping Ren1, Min Jiang3
1State Key Laboratory for Oxo Synthesis and Selective Oxidation, Lanzhou Institute of Chemical Physics (LICP), Chinese Academy of Sciences, Lanzhou, 730000, China.
Abstract:
Catalytic reduction of carboxylic acids and derivatives all the way to their corresponding methyl-compounds is very rare and still challenging for homogeneous transition-metal catalysis. Herein, we report an unprecedented and general catalytic exhaustive reduction of carboxylic functional group straightforwardly to a methyl group. This reaction was achieved using earth-abundant and readily available titanium as a catalyst. Our system has broad functional group tolerance and works for various other types of oxo-chemicals such as alcohols, aldehydes, ketones, lactones, and carboxylates (>100 examples). Preliminary mechanistic studies revealed that the in situ-generated TiIII -H species was vital for this transformation.
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