Chiral Ligand Based on a Pseudorotaxane Skeleton for Hydrogenation

Significance

With supramolecular chemistry emerging as an important and interesting area of chemistry, the authors have designed a new type of ligand that is competent in a hydrogenation reaction. The pseudorotaxane ligand is generated by mixing a crown ether and a secondary ammonium salt. The chirality comes from the appending of a binaphthol-derived molecule to the crown ether. The Rh-ligand system (1 mol%) was successful for the hydrogenation of methyl (Z)-α-­acetamidocinnamates.