Moisture-Tolerant Frustrated Lewis Pair Catalyst for Hydrogenation of Aldehydes and Ketones

Abstract

In this paper, we report on the development of a bench-stable borane for frustrated Lewis pair catalyzed reduction of aldehydes, ketones, and enones. The deliberate fine-tuning of structural and electronic parameters of Lewis acid component and the choice of Lewis base provided for the first time, a moisture-tolerant FLP catalyst. Related NMR and DFT studies underpinned the unique behavior of this FLP catalyst and gave insight into the catalytic activity of the resulting FLP catalyst.