Chinese Journal of Catalysis ›› 2011, Vol. 32 ›› Issue (7): 1275-1279.DOI: 10.3724/SP.J.1088.2011.10308

• Research papers • Previous Articles     Next Articles

Asymmetric Hydrogenation of Aromatic Ketones Catalyzed by L-Proline-Modified Ru-PPh3/γ-Al2O3 Catalyst

XIONG Wei1,*, LIU Derong1, JIA Yun1, QIN Ruixiang1, QIU Huidong1, WANG Jinbo1, LI Xianjun2   

  1. 1College of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Chongqing University of Science and Technology, Chongqing 401331, China; 2Key Laboratory of Green Chemistry and Technology of Ministry of Education, Institute of Homogeneous Catalysis, College of Chemistry, Sichuan University, Chengdu 610064, Sichuan, China
  • Received:2011-03-06 Revised:2011-04-29 Online:2011-07-18 Published:2014-11-28

Abstract: The asymmetric hydrogenation of aromatic ketones catalyzed by L-proline-modified Ru-PPh3/γ-Al2O3 was investigated. The effects of reaction conditions on the asymmetric hydrogenation of acetophenone were discussed in detail. The results indicated that natural chiral compound L-proline has a good modification effect on the Ru-PPh3/γ-Al2O3 catalyst. Under the optimum conditions, the conversion of acetophenone was up to 100%, and the enantioselectivity for the formation of (R)-phenyl ethanol was 59.5%. The synergistic effect between L-proline and KOH was observed. The chiral alcohol products could be easily separated by centrifugation. The catalyst was reused several times without remarkable change of enantioselectivity.

Key words: L-proline, aromatic ketone, asymmetric hydrogenation, ruthenium, supported catalyst