Cooperative Transition-Metal and Chiral Brønsted Acid Catalysis

Significance

The authors report a protocol for the enantioselective hydrogenation of various ketimines in the presence of a chiral Brønsted catalyst and a well-defined nonchiral iron catalyst. This work demonstrates that enantioselective reduction reactions with hydrogen can be performed without employing precious-metal catalysts and chiral ligands yielding products with high yields and enantioselectivities.