Replacing Phosphorus with Sulfur for the Efficient Hydrogenation of Esters

Abstract

Catalyst tune-up: A readily available, air-stable amino-sulfide catalyst, [RuCl(2)(PPh(3)){HN(C(2)H(4)SEt)(2)}], has been developed. This complex displays outstanding efficiency for the hydrogenation of a broad range of substrates with C=X bonds (esters, ketones, imines), as well as for the acceptorless dehydrogenative coupling of ethanol to ethyl acetate.