ABSTRACT
Catalytic hydrogenation of aliphatic ketones can be carried out in the presence of noble metals, usually Pt and Ru at 25-60°C and 1-5 atm H2, or in the presence of Cu chromites and Ni catalysts. However, these last ones require about 50 atm of pressure and temperatures higher than 100°C [1]. Moreover, as the carbonyl group reduction (AH= -12 kcal/mol) is thermodynamically unfavoured with respect to C-C double bond hydrogenation (AH=-30 kcal/mol), problems of chemoselectivity arise in the hydrogenation of unsaturated ketones, and despite the potential for applications to large scale reduction of polyfunctional carbonyl-containing compounds, hydrogenation catalysts rigorously chemoselective for carbonyl reduction over alkene hydrogenation are still very rare. One of these is dimethylphenylphosphine stabilized copper(I) hydride [2].
