Patent ID: 7777083

Claim:
A method for the reduction of compounds comprising one or more carbon-oxygen (C═O) double bonds comprising contacting the compound with hydrogen gas and a catalyst comprising an iridium aminodiphosphine complex and a base, wherein the hydrogen gas is used at a pressure greater than 3 atm and the complex is of the formula (II): IrX 3 [P 2 NH] (II) wherein X may be the same or different and are selected from hydrogen and any anionic ligand; [P 2 NH] represents a tridentate aminodiphosphine ligand of formula (III): in which R 3 to R 6 simultaneously or independently are selected from of H, C 1-20 alkyl, C 2-20 alkenyl, C 3-20 cycloalkyl and aryl, said latter 4 groups being optionally substituted, or two adjacent or geminal R 3 , R 4 , R 5 or R 6 groups are bonded together to form an optionally substituted ring; x and y are, simultaneously or independently, equal to 0, 1, 2, 3 or 4; and R is simultaneously or independently selected from H, C 1-20 alkyl, aryl and C 2-20 alkenyl, OR d and NR d 2 , said latter 5 groups being optionally substituted, or the R groups on the same P atom are linked together to form an optionally substituted monocyclic or polycyclic, saturated, unsaturated and/or aromatic ring system having 4 or more atoms, including the phosphorous atom to which said R groups are bonded, and in which one or more carbon atoms in said ring system is optionally replaced with a heteromoiety selected from O, S, N, NH, NC 1-6 alkyl and Si; the optional substituents are selected from one or more of halo, OH, NH 2 , OR d , NR d 2 and R d ; R d is selected from C 1-6 alkyl, C 2-6 alkenyl, C 3-10 cycloalkyl and aryl, wherein one or more of the carbon atoms in the alkyl, alkenyl, cycloalkyl and aryl groups is optionally replaced with a heteromoiety selected from O, S, N, NH, NC 1-6 alkyl and Si and one or more of the hydrogen atoms in the alkyl, alkenyl, cycloalkyl and aryl groups is optionally replaced with F.