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Published Online December 8, 2005
Science DOI: 10.1126/science.1121977

Reports

Submitted on October 28, 2005
Accepted on November 29, 2005

Asymmetric Hydrogenation of Unfunctionalized, Purely Alkyl-Substituted Olefins

Sharon Bell 1, Bettina Wüstenberg 1, Stefan Kaiser 1, Frederik Menges 1, Thomas Netscher 2, Andreas Pfaltz 1*

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

* To whom correspondence should be addressed.
Andreas Pfaltz , E-mail: andreas.pfaltz{at}unibas.ch

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, which 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.




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