Note to users. If you're seeing this message, it means that your browser cannot find this page's style/presentation instructions -- or possibly that you are using a browser that does not support current Web standards. Find out more about why this message is appearing, and what you can do to make your experience of our site the best it can be.

Site Tools

  • AAAS
  • Subscribe
  • Feedback

Site Search

Search Advanced

Originally published in Science Express on 8 December 2005
Science 3 February 2006:
Vol. 311. no. 5761, pp. 642 - 644
DOI: 10.1126/science.1121977
Prev | Table of Contents | Next

Reports

Asymmetric Hydrogenation of Unfunctionalized, Purely Alkyl-Substituted Olefins

Sharon Bell,1* Bettina Wüstenberg,1* Stefan Kaiser,1 Frederik Menges,1 Thomas Netscher,2 Andreas Pfaltz1{dagger}

Asymmetric hydrogenation of olefins is one of the most useful reactions for the synthesis of optically active compounds, especially in industry. However, the application range of the catalysts developed so far is limited to alkenes with a coordinating functional group or an aryl substituent next to the double bond. We have found a class of chiral iridium catalysts that give high enantioselectivity in the hydrogenation of unfunctionalized, trialkyl-substituted olefins. Because these catalysts do not require the presence of any particular functional group or aryl substituent in the substrate, they considerably broaden the scope of asymmetric hydrogenation.

1 Department of Chemistry, University of Basel, St. JohannsRing 19, CH-4056 Basel, Switzerland.
2 Research and Development, DSM Nutritional Products Ltd., P.O. Box 3255, CH-4002 Basel, Switzerland.

* These authors contributed equally to this work.

{dagger} To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: andreas.pfaltz{at}unibas.ch

Read the Full Text

ADVERTISEMENT
Click Me!

ADVERTISEMENT
Click Me!

To Advertise     Find Products

Science. ISSN 0036-8075 (print), 1095-9203 (online)