Industrial-scale synthesis and applications of asymmetric hydrogenation catalysts.

This Account provides an overview of our activities in the area of asymmetric hydrogenation over the last 12 years. We discuss the manufacture of metal-containing precatalysts and their use in asymmetric hydrogenation processes. Many of the metal complexes have been made on a multikilogram scale for our own use and also provided to our customers. In addition, we review some of the applications that we have developed for our asymmetric hydrogenation catalysts, many of which have been operated on commercial scales. This all underlines that asymmetric hydrogenation is a mature technology that has been adopted for use in the pharmaceutical and fine-chemical industries.

Asymmetric hydrogenation of pharmaceutically interesting substrates.

The application of asymmetric hydrogenation to the manufacture of pharmaceutical intermediates has become increasingly prevalent in the past three to five years. This review focuses on the hydrogenation substrates and their use, rather than comparing the specific catalysts employed. The literature published between 2002 and 2003 is covered, with some pertinent examples from 2001, all of which demonstrate the increasing number of applications for this technology.