Catalyst development for organocatalytic hydrosilylation of aromatic ketones and ketimines.

A new family of Lewis basic 2-pyridyl oxazolines have been developed, which can act as efficient organocatalysts for the enantioselective reduction of prochiral aromatic ketones and ketimines with trichlorosilane, a readily available and inexpensive reagent. 1-Isoquinolyl oxazoline, derived from mandelic acid, was identified as the most efficient catalyst of the series, capable of delivering high enantioselectivities in the reduction of both ketones (up to 94% ee) and ketimines (up to 89% ee).

Hydrogenation of aromatic ketones, aldehydes, and epoxides with hydrogen and Pd(0)EnCat 30NP.

Aromatic aldehydes and ketones as well as aromatic epoxides are selectively reduced to the corresponding alcohols under mild conditions using conventional hydrogen in the presence of Pd(0)EnCat 30NP catalyst. The reactions were performed at room temperature during 16 hours with high to excellent conversions of the corresponding products.