Asymmetric Hydrogenation of Ketones by Simple Alkane-Diyl-Based Ir(P,N,O) Catalysts: A Comparative Study

The development of new chiral ligands with simple and modular structure represents a challenging direction in the design of efficient homogeneous transition metal catalysts. Herein, we report on the asymmetric hydrogenation of prochiral ketones catalyzed by the iridium complexes of simple alkane-diyl-based P,N,O-type chiral ligands with a highly modular structure. The role of (i) the P-N and N-O backbone in the potentially tridentate ligands, (ii) the number, position and relative configuration of their stereogenic elements and (iii) the effect of their NH and OH subunits on the activity and enantioselectivity of the catalytic reactions are studied. The systematic variation in the ligand structure and the comparative catalytic experiments shed light on different mechanistic aspects of the iridium-catalyzed reaction. The catalysts containing the simple alkane-diyl-based ligands with central chirality provided high enantioselectivities (up to 98% ee) under optimized reaction conditions and proved to be active and selective even at very high substrate concentrations (100 mmol substrate/mL solvent).