Transition-Metal-Catalyzed Asymmetric Hydrogenation and Transfer Hydrogenation: Sustainable Chemistry to Access Bioactive Molecules

Abstract

Over the last few decades, the development of new and highly efficient synthetic methods to obtain chiral compounds has become an increasingly important and challenging research area in modern synthetic organic chemistry. In this account, we review recent work from our laboratory toward the synthesis of valuable chiral building blocks through transition-metal-catalyzed asymmetric hydrogenation and transfer hydrogenation of C=O, C=N and C=C bonds. Application to the synthesis of biologically relevant products is also described.

Keywords: asymmetric catalysis; dynamic kinetic resolution; hydrogenation; total synthesis; transfer hydrogenation.