Patent ID: 7645908

Claim:
A process for hydrogenating α, β-unsaturated carbonyl compounds, comprising reacting a compound of the formula I with a hydride donor in the presence of a catalyst to form a compound of the formula II, wherein the compound of the formula I has the formula: in which R 1 is H, a branched or unbranched, saturated or unsaturated hydrocarbon radical which has from 1 to 30 carbon atoms and may have suitable substituents, where the hydrocarbon radical may have one or more heteroatoms in the chain, an aryl group or heteroaryl group which may have suitable substituents, R 2 , R 3 and R 4 may be the same or different and are each selected from the group consisting of H, F, Cl, Br, I, OH, CN, NO 2 , NO, SO 2 , SO 3 − , amino, mono- and di-(C 1 -C 24 -alkyl)-substituted amino, mono- and di-(C 5 -C 20 -aryl)-substituted amino, imino, phosphono, phosphonato, phosphinato, phospho, phosphino, a branched or unbranched, saturated or unsaturated hydrocarbon radical which has from 1 to 30 carbon atoms and may have suitable substituents, where the hydrocarbon radical may have a heteroatom in the chain, an aryl group or heteroaryl group which may have suitable substituents, where in each case 2 or more of the R 1 , R 2 , R 3 and R 4 radicals may form a 5- or 6-membered ring or fused 5-membered and/or 6-membered rings, which may be aromatic, alicyclic, heteroaromatic or heteroalicyclic and may have up to 4 substituents, and the compound of the formula II has the formula: in which R 1 , R 2 , R 3 and R 4 are each as defined above; and where in the catalyst is selected from the group consisting of organic bases.