Chemoselective Hydrogenation of Aldehydes under Mild, Base-Free Conditions: Manganese Outperforms Rhenium

High Resolution Image Download MS PowerPoint Slide Several hydride Mn(I) and Re(I) PNP pincer complexes were applied as catalysts for the homogeneous chemoselective hydrogenation of aldehydes. Among these, [Mn(PNP-iPr)(CO)2(H)] was found to be one of the most efficient base metal catalysts for this process and represents a rare example which permits the selective hydrogenation of aldehydes in the presence of ketones and other reducible functionalities, such as C═C double bonds, esters, or nitriles. The reaction proceeds at room temperature under base-free conditions with catalyst loadings between 0.1 and 0.05 mol% and a hydrogen pressure of 50 bar (reaching TONs of up to 2000). A mechanism which involves an outer-sphere hydride transfer and reversible PNP ligand deprotonation/protonation is proposed. Analogous isoelectronic and isostructural Re(I) complexes were only poorly active