Iron Catalyzed Hydroboration of Aldehydes and Ketones

Abstract

We report an operationally convenient room temperature hydroboration of aldehydes and ketones employing Fe(acac)₃ as precatalyst. The hydroboration of aldehydes and ketones proceeded efficiently at room temperature to yield, after work up, 1° and 2° alcohols; chemoselective hydroboration of aldehydes over ketones is attained under these conditions. We propose a σ-bond metathesis mechanism in which an Fe-H intermediate is postulated to be a key reactive species.