Highly sustainable catalytic dehydrogenation of alcohols with evolution of hydrogen gas

The catalytic dehydrogenation of alcohols into aldehydes and ketones in the absence of H-acceptors was studied with several transition metal catalysts in order to develop a large-scale procedure. Applying Ru(OCOCF3)(2)(CO)(PPh3)(2), the so called Robinson catalyst, several secondary alcohols could be dehydrogenated with high selectivity into the corresponding ketones in relatively short reaction times. Highly effective atom utilization could be realized avoiding solvents and giving hydrogen gas as the sole by-product. However, in contrast to Robinson's work the catalytic dehydrogenation of primary alcohols appeared to be problematic due to decarbonylation with concomitant catalyst deactivation and aldol condensation under the strong acid or basic conditions applied. (C) 2003 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.