Scope and Selectivity of Heterogeneous Rh0-Catalyzed Tandem Dehydrocoupling/Hydrogenation Using Me2NH•BH3 as a Stoichiometric H2 Source

The catalytic dehydrocoupling of Me2NH center dot BH3 (1) by Rh/Al2O3 (2) has been shown to act as an efficient hydrogenation and reduction system for a variety of organic substrates. A range of functional groups have been reduced, but chloro, bromo and iodo substituents, epoxide and nitrile groups were found to be stable under the reaction conditions, allowing chemoselective hydrogenation reactions to be performed. This reduction has also been shown to proceed cleanly under atmospheric air for a few representative examples of alkene and nitro functional groups.