Solvias Josiphos ligands: from discovery to technical applications

The various stages from the invention of a ligand class to its technical application are described and illustrated by the case history of the Solvias Josiphos ligands. First, the prerequisites for a so-called privileged ligand are discussed, followed by a description of the Josiphos ligand family and their technical synthesis. Then, the catalytic performance of various Josiphos metal complexes in model reactions and in real world synthetic applications are summarized in the next two chapters. In the last part, three technical processes using Josiphos ligands are described: (i) The Ir-PPF-P(Xyl)(2) -catalyzed hydrogenation of MEA imine for the large scale production of the herbicide (S)-metolachlor; (ii) the application of a Rh-PPF-P(tBu)(2) complex for the hydrogenation of a biotin intermediate; (iii) the Ru-PPF-P(CY)(2) -catalyzed hydrogenation of a tetrasubstituted C=C bond for the production of cis-methyl dihydrojasmonate.