Highly Efficient and Highly Enantioselective Asymmetric Hydrogenation of Ketones with TunesPhos/1,2-Diamine-Ruthenium(II) Complexes

The TunePhos/diamine-Ru(II) complex combined with t-BuOK in 2-propanol effectively catalyzes enantioselective hydrogenation of a wide range of simple ketones including aromatic, heteroaromatic, alpha,beta-unsaturated, and cyclopropyl ketones, affording high reactivity (up to 1 000 000 TON) and excellent enantioselectivities (>99% ee for 13 examples).