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Science 30 July 1982:
Vol. 217. no. 4558, pp. 401 - 407
DOI: 10.1126/science.217.4558.401
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Articles

Mechanism and Stereoselectivity of Asymmetric Hydrogenation

Jack Halpern 1

1 Louis Block Professor of Chemistry, University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois 60637

Rhodium complexes containing chiral phosphine ligands catalyze the hydrogenation of olefinic substrates such as agr-aminoacrylic acid derivatives, producing chiral products with very high optical yields. Elucidation of the mechanisms of such reactions leads to the conclusion that the stereoselection is dictated not by the preferred initial binding of the substrate to the chiral catalyst, but rather by the much higher reactivity of the minor diastereomer of the catalyst-substrate adduct corresponding to the less favored binding mode.


THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN CITED BY OTHER ARTICLES:
Current Status of Asymmetric Synthesis.
H. S. Mosher and J. D. Morrison (1983)
Science 221, 1013-1019
   Abstract »    PDF »
Catalysts That Break Nature's Monopoly: Chiral complexes can approach the specificity of enzymes for synthesis of optically active compounds, and can act on a wider variety of substrates.
T. H. MAUGH II (1983)
Science 221, 351-354
   PDF »


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