Efficient reductive depolymerization of hardwood and softwood lignins with Brookhart's iridium(III) catalyst and hydrosilanes

Efficient catalytic reduction of lignin model molecules and reductive depolymerization of softwood and hardwood lignins is presented with the iridium based Brookhart's catalyst and hydrosilanes R3SiH as reductant. This catalyst displays increased stability and selectivity in comparison to the B(C6F5)(3)/hydrosilane system and it enables a convergent reductive depolymerization of wood lignins to isolable mono-aromatics.