Cobalt-Catalyzed Asymmetric Hydrogenation of Ketones Enabled by the Synergism of an N–H Functionality and a Redox-Active Ligand

The transition metal-catalyzed asymmetric hydrogenation (AH) of ketones to produce enantioenriched alcohols is an important reaction in organic chemistry with applications in the pharmaceutical and agrochemical fields. Using earth-abundant, biorelevant cobalt as the central metal in the catalyst has a high potential to improve sustainability and achieve hydrogenation reactions that are scalable. However, due to the high d-electron count, designing cobalt catalysts that exhibit turnover numbers (TONs, ≥1000) and enantioselectivities (≥90%) sufficient for synthetic utility and practical scalability (≥1 kg scale) remains a challenge. In this work, an efficient catalyst design strategy utilizing an amino(imino)diphosphine Co(II) bromide precatalyst is presented to achieve this goal. The quantitative production of a wide range of secondary chiral alcohols with TONs of up to 150,000 and an enantiomeric excess (e.e.) of up to 99% at a scale of up to 1.35 kg was achieved, indicating that the proposed cobalt catalyst is highly promising for AH and scale-up reactions. A mechanistic study revealed that the synergism of an N-H functionality and a redox-active ligand endows the cobalt catalyst with a high productivity and excellent enantioselectivity.