Journal of the American Chemical Society, Vol.135, No.26, 9600-9603, 2013
Practical Selective Hydrogenation of alpha-Fluorinated Esters with Bifunctional Pincer-Type Ruthenium(II) Catalysts Leading to Fluorinated Alcohols or Fluoral Hemiacetals
Selective hydrogenation of fluorinated esters with pincer-type bifunctional catalysts RuHCl(CO)(dpa) 1a, trans-RuH2(CO)(dpa) 1b, and trans-RuCl2(CO)(dpa) 1cunder mild conditions proceeds rapidly to give the corresponding fluorinated alcohols or hemiacetals in good to excellent yields. Under the optimized conditions, the hydrogenation of chiral (R)-2-fluoropropionate proceeds smoothly to give the corresponding chiral alcohol without any serious decrease of the ee value.