John M. Brown
IntroductionThe discovery of the first practical catalyst for homogeneous hydrogenation by Wilkinson, Osborn, Jardine and Young in 1965 [1] occurred at around the same time that others, especially Mislow and Horner [2], were demonstrating that chiral trivalent phosphorus compounds were capable of existing as stable, noninterconverting enantiomers. With suitable adaptation of Wilkinson's catalyst, a prostereogenic alkene could be hydrogenated with preferential formation of one enantiomer of the reduced product. The possibility of such enantioselective hydrogenation was recognized by both Horner [3] and Knowles [4], but it was Knowles who won the race to demonstrate the first example in 1968. This led rapidly to a period of seminal discoveries: the application of chelate biphosphine ligands came from Kagan [5], and the development of a full-scale enantioselective hydrogenation of a dehydroamino acid to provide a rhodium-complex-based catalytic synthesis of l-Dopa by Knowles' team at Monsanto [6]. For many years this provided a substantial part of the supply of the main drug active in the control of Parkinson's disease. Kagan was also the first to demonstrate, in his synthesis and application of DIOP (derived very simply from RR-or SS-tartaric acid), that the difficult synthesis of enantiomerically pure phosphines was unnecessary for effective enantioselective hydrogenation, since a suitable chelate backbone could provide the necessary level of stereochemical control. For many years the development of enantioselective hydrogenation converged on the preparation of enantiomerically pure chelate diphosphines and the application of their rhodium complexes to the hydrogenation of dehydroamino acids, enamides and closely related reactants [7]. Although both ruthenium [8] and iridium catalysts [9] for homogeneous hydrogenation were known at an early stage, the development of effective enantioselective hydrogenation in these two spheres occurred much later. For ruthenium enantioselective hydrogenation, the spectacular efficiency of BINAP catalysts [10] developed by Noyori's group was first demonstrated for alkenes, and then in rather greater depth for ketones [11]. The high efficiency of iridium complexes in hydrogenation had been demonstrated
1073The Handbook of Homogeneous Hydrogenation. Edited by J. G. de Vries and C. J. Elsevier
