Asymmetric Hydrogenation of Ketones by Simple Alkane-Diyl-Based Ir(P,N,O) Catalysts: A Comparative Study

The development of new chiral ligands with simple and modular structure represents a challenging direction in the design of efficient homogeneous transition metal catalysts. Herein, we report on the asymmetric hydrogenation of prochiral ketones catalyzed by the iridium complexes of simple alkane-diyl-based P,N,O-type chiral ligands with a highly modular structure. The role of (i) the P-N and N-O backbone in the potentially tridentate ligands, (ii) the number, position and relative configuration of their stereogenic elements and (iii) the effect of their NH and OH subunits on the activity and enantioselectivity of the catalytic reactions are studied. The systematic variation in the ligand structure and the comparative catalytic experiments shed light on different mechanistic aspects of the iridium-catalyzed reaction. The catalysts containing the simple alkane-diyl-based ligands with central chirality provided high enantioselectivities (up to 98% ee) under optimized reaction conditions and proved to be active and selective even at very high substrate concentrations (100 mmol substrate/mL solvent).


Introduction
Transition metal-catalyzed asymmetric hydrogenation of prochiral ketones is one of the most convenient and economically feasible methodologies for the synthesis of optically enriched chiral alcohols [1,2].These products are valuable building blocks for a number of biologically active compounds such as pharmaceuticals, agrochemicals and fragrances [3][4][5].Besides the high atom economy of using molecular hydrogen as a reactant in the catalytic process, the easy separation of the excess H 2 gas further enhances the synthetic value of the methodology [6].
Since the development of the highly efficient [RuCl 2 (diphosphine)(diamine)]-type hydrogenation catalysts by Noyori and coworkers [7,8], significant research efforts have been devoted to the synthesis of even more efficient homogeneous catalysts for the asymmetric reduction of ketones [5,9].In this contribution, iridium complexes modified by chiral tridentate ligands represent a unique class of catalysts due to their extremely high activity, enantioselectivity and stability [10].The success of tridentate ligands compared to their bidentate analogues may rest upon the presence of an extra coordinating site that prevents the formation of catalytically inactive bis-ligated species and also leads to the formation of a conformationally less flexible chiral environment around the metal [11,12].Furthermore, tridentate ligands have generally higher structural modularity compared to their bidentate analogues and therefore are more suitable for stereo-electronic fine-tuning [13].The first highly efficient Ir catalyst containing a potentially tridentate P,N,N-type ligand, SpiroPAP, was developed by Zhou and coworkers (Figure 1) and was utilized in the asymmetric hydrogenation of a wide range of ketonic substrates, resulting in extremely high activities (turnover frequency > 100,000 h −1 in the hydrogenation of acetophenone) and enantioselectivities (>99% ee) [11].Later, novel P,N,N-type ligand families emerged and proved to be efficient catalysts in iridium-catalyzed asymmetric hydrogenation [14].Unlike P,N,N-type chiral stereoselectors, however, chiral phosphine-amine-alcohols or -phenols (P,N,OH ligands) represent a significantly less studied group of compounds despite their unique catalytic features [15,16].
Molecules 2024, 29, x FOR PEER REVIEW 3 of 19 alkane-diyl-based ligands equipped with solely centrally chiral subunits in iridium-catalyzed asymmetric hydrogenation and the identification of the key structural elements of the ligands in the catalytic process.

Synthesis of the Novel Ligands
Recently, we developed a synthetic protocol for the preparation of structurally analogous alkane-diyl-based chiral phosphine-amine-alcohol (L1-3, Figure 2) [26] and phosphine-amine-ether-type (L6 and L11, Figures 2 and 3, respectively) [27] ligands that were utilized in palladium-catalyzed asymmetric allylic alkylation and ruthenium-catalyzed asymmetric hydrogenation, respectively.In the present study, we broadened the scope of our P,N,O ligand library based on the same highly modular, two-step synthetic procedure (Figure 2).At first, chiral or achiral cyclic sulfates 1 were treated with aminoalcohols or aminoethers, resulting in the formation of the corresponding sulfated amines (2).The subsequent reaction of compounds 2 with lithium diphenylphosphide afforded the desired novel tridentate ligands L4, L5 and L7-L9.In the case of chiral starting materials (R,R)-or (S,S)-1a and (R,R)-1b, both steps occurred with complete inversion at the stereogenic centers, resulting in the stereoselective formation of the product.Zhang and coworkers developed a ferrocene-based P,N,OH ligand family (f-Amphol) that was utilized in the iridium-catalyzed asymmetric hydrogenation of acetophenone derivatives (Figure 1) [17].The catalysts afforded product alcohols with high enantioselectivities (98-99.9%ee) and activities, and the catalysts proved to be very stable in hydrogenation reactions (TON up to 200,000).A computational study on the catalytic intermediates provided firm evidence that the hydroxyl group plays a key role in the hydrogenation process.Later, Zhang's f-Amphol ligand was utilized in the enantio-and diastereoselective hydrogenation of α-substituted β-ketoesters through dynamic kinetic resolution [18].The products were obtained in high yields (up to 98%) with excellent diastereomeric ratios (up to 96:4) and enantioselectivities (>99 ee).Additionally, a member of the f-Amphol ligand family proved to be extremely efficient in the asymmetric hydrogenation of benzo-fused cyclic ketones, where ee's up to 99% and TON up to 297,000 could be obtained [19].
Recently, Zhou et al. synthesized a P,N,OH ligand family based on a [2,2]-paracyclophane framework with planar chirality (Figure 1) [20].The Ir-complexes of the ligands provided excellent enantioselectivities (up to >99 ee) in the asymmetric hydrogenation of simple alkyl-aryl ketones.The presence of both the NH and OH functionality in the ligand was crucial to achieve considerable catalytic activity and enantioselectivity.
Novel ferrocene-based aminophosphine-binol (f-Amphbinol)-type ligands were prepared by Zhou and Ji and were applied in the stereoselective hydrogenation of arylsubstituted cyclohexanones and in the asymmetric hydrogenation of simple alkyl-aryl ketones (Figure 1) [21].High diastereoselectivities (>99:1) and enantioselectivities (83-99% ee) could be obtained in the iridium-catalyzed processes.Again, the indispensable role of both the NH and OH moieties was proved.
Besides the aforementioned ligand families, it is important to note that tridentate phosphine-amine-carboxylic acids (f-Ampha) [22] or potentially tetradentate P,N,N,O(H) ligands [23,24] are also extremely powerful stereoselectors in iridium-catalyzed asymmetric hydrogenation reactions that can also be utilized in the industrial-scale production of high-value bio-active compounds [25].
The above examples clearly demonstrate that the development of novel P,N,OH ligands represent a challenging new direction in catalysis research aiming at the improvement of catalytic efficiency and the identification of key structural elements in successful stereoelectronic communication between the catalysts and the substrate.However, ligand modifications in the literature generally follow the principle of changing the steric and/or electronic properties of the donor atoms by simply varying their substituents, which somewhat limits the potential of efficient ligand screening.Additionally, to the best of our knowledge, there is no literature report on the application of P,N,OH ligands in iridiumcatalyzed asymmetric hydrogenation that have simple central chirality exclusively instead of planar or axially chiral subunits.The simplification of the ligand structure together with a highly modular synthetic approach would offer an outstanding opportunity for the efficient structural screening of an easily available chiral P,N,OH ligand family.Inspired by this philosophy in ligand design and the high potential of P,N,OH ligands in iridium-catalyzed asymmetric hydrogenation, we decided to develop an alkane-diyl-based phosphine-amine-alcohol ligand family.Our intention was to prove the usefulness of simple alkane-diyl-based ligands equipped with solely centrally chiral subunits in iridiumcatalyzed asymmetric hydrogenation and the identification of the key structural elements of the ligands in the catalytic process.

Synthesis of the Novel Ligands
Recently, we developed a synthetic protocol for the preparation of structurally analogous alkane-diyl-based chiral phosphine-amine-alcohol (L1-3, Figure 2) [26] and phosphine-amine-ether-type (L6 and L11, Figures 2 and 3, respectively) [27] ligands that were utilized in palladium-catalyzed asymmetric allylic alkylation and ruthenium-catalyzed asymmetric hydrogenation, respectively.In the present study, we broadened the scope of our P,N,O ligand library based on the same highly modular, two-step synthetic procedure (Figure 2).At first, chiral or achiral cyclic sulfates 1 were treated with aminoalcohols or aminoethers, resulting in the formation of the corresponding sulfated amines (2).The subsequent reaction of compounds 2 with lithium diphenylphosphide afforded the desired novel tridentate ligands L4, L5 and L7-L9.In the case of chiral starting materials (R,R)or (S,S)-1a and (R,R)-1b, both steps occurred with complete inversion at the stereogenic centers, resulting in the stereoselective formation of the product.In addition, ligand L10 could selectively be synthesized through Eschweiler-Clark methylation [28,29] of the parent compounds L6 with secondary amine functionality, respectively (Figure 3).In addition, ligand L10 could selectively be synthesized through Eschweiler-Clark methylation [28,29] of the parent compounds L6 with secondary amine functionality, respectively (Figure 3).Unlike ligands L1-11 with an aliphatic N-O backbone, compound L12 containing an o-hydroxybenzyl moiety was prepared by the functionalization of the corresponding primary aminoalkyl-phosphine 5 (Figure 4).The preparation of this intermediate was realized by the slight modification of the procedure starting from cyclic sulfates, according to Figure 4.The ring opening of (R,R)-1a with benzyl amine delivered the N-benzyl-protected salt 3 [30] that can be converted to the primary amine 5 by the removal of the protecting group under hydrogenative conditions and by a subsequent nucleophilic substitution step.In addition, ligand L10 could selectively be synthesized through Eschweiler-Clark methylation [28,29] of the parent compounds L6 with secondary amine functionality, respectively (Figure 3).
Unlike ligands L1-11 with an aliphatic N-O backbone, compound L12 containing an ohydroxybenzyl moiety was prepared by the functionalization of the corresponding primary aminoalkyl-phosphine 5 (Figure 4).The preparation of this intermediate was realized by the slight modification of the procedure starting from cyclic sulfates, according to Figure 4.The ring opening of (R,R)-1a with benzyl amine delivered the N-benzyl-protected salt 3 [30] that can be converted to the primary amine 5 by the removal of the protecting group under hydrogenative conditions and by a subsequent nucleophilic substitution step.With the novel ligand library in hand, we were able to investigate the effect of (i) the P-N and N-O backbone of the potentially tridentate ligands, (ii) the relative configuration of their stereogenic elements and (iii) the N-R and O-R (R = H or Me) subunits on the activity and selectivity of iridium-catalyzed asymmetric hydrogenation.

Asymmetric Hydrogenation
In the first set of experiments, we set out to investigate the effect of the reaction conditions using ligand L1 as the stereoselector.The precatalyst was generated in situ starting from the commercially available [Ir(COD)Cl]2 and two equivalents of the chiral ligand.Initially, the reaction was carried out at a substrate/catalyst (S/C) molar ratio of 500 and base/catalyst (B/C) ratio of 5 in isopropanol as solvent under 30 bar hydrogen pressure at room temperature.The variation in the base cation and the B/C ratio strongly affected the activity and selectivity of the catalyst (entries 1-5, Table 1).The highest ee (92%, entry 3) could be obtained with lithium-tertbutoxyde at a B/C ratio of 10.Next, the effect of the solvent was investigated (entries [6][7][8][9][10][11], which proved to be crucial in terms of activity and selectivity.The reaction proceeds smoothly in alcohols (entries 6-8), but polar non-protic solvents have a detrimental effect on both conversion and enantioselectivity (9-10).The highest ee's, 94 and 95%, could be observed in ethanol and n-butanol, respectively.Furthermore, the reaction could also be realized in 96% ethanol (entry 11) or under anhydrous conditions at S/C = 1000, with 95% enantioselectivity and complete conversion (entry 12).
Next, we investigated the ligand effects in the asymmetric hydrogenation reaction of the benchmark substrate acetophenone.The reactions were performed at a S/C = 500 and B/C = 10, in dry ethanol under 30 bar hydrogen pressure using tBuOLi as a base.Similarly to the previous experiments, the catalyst was synthesized in situ by mixing the dimer With the novel ligand library in hand, we were able to investigate the effect of (i) the P-N and N-O backbone of the potentially tridentate ligands, (ii) the relative configuration of their stereogenic elements and (iii) the N-R and O-R (R = H or Me) subunits on the activity and selectivity of iridium-catalyzed asymmetric hydrogenation.

Asymmetric Hydrogenation
In the first set of experiments, we set out to investigate the effect of the reaction conditions using ligand L1 as the stereoselector.The precatalyst was generated in situ starting from the commercially available [Ir(COD)Cl] 2 and two equivalents of the chiral ligand.Initially, the reaction was carried out at a substrate/catalyst (S/C) molar ratio of 500 and base/catalyst (B/C) ratio of 5 in isopropanol as solvent under 30 bar hydrogen pressure at room temperature.The variation in the base cation and the B/C ratio strongly affected the activity and selectivity of the catalyst (entries 1-5, Table 1).The highest ee (92%, entry 3) could be obtained with lithium-tertbutoxyde at a B/C ratio of 10.Next, the effect of the solvent was investigated (entries [6][7][8][9][10][11], which proved to be crucial in terms of activity and selectivity.The reaction proceeds smoothly in alcohols (entries 6-8), but polar non-protic solvents have a detrimental effect on both conversion and enantioselectivity (9-10).The highest ee's, 94 and 95%, could be observed in ethanol and n-butanol, respectively.Furthermore, the reaction could also be realized in 96% ethanol (entry 11) or under anhydrous conditions at S/C = 1000, with 95% enantioselectivity and complete conversion (entry 12).Next, we investigated the ligand effects in the asymmetric hydrogenation reaction of the benchmark substrate acetophenone.The reactions were performed at a S/C = 500 and B/C = 10, in dry ethanol under 30 bar hydrogen pressure using tBuOLi as a base.Similarly to the previous experiments, the catalyst was synthesized in situ by mixing the dimer [Ir(COD)Cl] 2 with two equivalents of the chiral ligand.In addition to phosphineamine-alcohol (P,N,OH) ligands L1-5, L7-9 and L12, the reaction was also performed in the presence of phosphine-amine-ethers L6, L10 and L11 (Figure 5).Based on the catalytic results achieved, some general conclusions can be drawn.First, under the reaction conditions applied all catalysts proved to be catalytically active, although significant differences can be observed in enantioselectivity.Second, catalysts modified with pentanediyl-based phosphine-amine-alcohols (L1-5, L9 and L12) provided the product with generally higher enantioselectivity than with the rest of the ligands.Third, in the case of phosphine-amine-alcohols (L1-5, L9 and L12) the configuration of the main product enantiomer is determined by the configuration of the P-N-framework, irrespective of the N-O-backbone: ligands with (S,S)-pentane-2,4-diyl backbone provided (R)-1-phenylethanol as the main product, and L3 with (R,R)-configuration afforded the prevailing product enantiomer with (S)-configuration.
The enantioselectivities achieved by ligands L1-3 clearly prove that the introduction of a stereogenic element into the N-O tether has a detrimental effect on the enantioselectivity.Although this result might seem somewhat unexpected, the addition of a new chirality element does not necessarily improve selectivity [31].Similarly, further modification of the N-O bridge (L4, L5 and L12) led to reduced selectivity of the catalytic reaction compared to L1.
The comparison of the catalytic results obtained by ligands L1, L6, L9 and L10, which differ from each other only in the number and position of methyl substituents, suggests that the presence of the OH functionality is essential to achieve enantioselectivity.Although the catalyst modified by the N-Me-containing L9 provided lower enantioselectivity (67% ee) compared to L1 (94% ee), it is still a significantly better stereoselector than its analogues L6 (2% ee) or L10 (0% ee) without the OH site.This observation reflects the pivotal role of the OH group in the catalytic process.The enantioselectivities achieved by ligands L1-3 clearly prove that the introduction of a stereogenic element into the N-O tether has a detrimental effect on the enantioselectivity.Although this result might seem somewhat unexpected, the addition of a new chirality element does not necessarily improve selectivity [31].Similarly, further modification of the N-O bridge (L4, L5 and L12) led to reduced selectivity of the catalytic reaction compared to L1.
The comparison of the catalytic results obtained by ligands L1, L6, L9 and L10, which differ from each other only in the number and position of methyl substituents, suggests that the presence of the OH functionality is essential to achieve enantioselectivity.Although the catalyst modified by the N-Me-containing L9 provided lower enantioselectivity (67% ee) compared to L1 (94% ee), it is still a significantly better stereoselector than its To interpret the function of the OH group in the catalytic reaction, we performed further catalytic tests using simple alkane-diyl-based bidentate systems L13 [32] and L14 [33] under identical conditions.Interestingly, the enantioselectivities and activities achieved by the Ir-complexes of bidentate ligands L13 (79%, 3% ee) and L14 (64%, 0% ee) are very similar to those obtained by the catalysts bearing the O-methylated ligands L6 (83%, 2% ee) and L10 (25%, 0% ee).Based on these results and literature findings [34], it is reasonable to assume that in the O-methylated compounds the N-O-framework remains a pendant side arm as the ligands coordinate in a κ 2 -P,N bidentate fashion to iridium in the catalytically active species mainly due to steric reasons.In contrast to this, a κ 3 -P,N,O coordination pattern is expected for P,N,OH ligands [17,20,25].The remarkably different coordination mode can explain the differences in the enantioselectivities obtained by phosphine-amine-ethers L6 and L10 and phosphine-amine-alcohols L1 and L9, respectively.
Furthermore, the crucial role of the OH functionality is also manifested in the significantly different catalytic results achieved by ligands L1 and L15.The PNN-type ligand L15 [35] is an analogue of L1, both having the same (S,S)-pentane-2,4-diyl backbone as the only source of chirality.Despite their close structural analogy, however, the catalyst modified by L15 produced (S)-1-phenylethanol with 76% ee in contrast to L1 which leads to the formation of (R)-1-phenylethanol with 94% ee.The observed enantioselectivity switch can be explained in terms of a metal-ligand bifunctional mechanism where a protic subunit (e.g., NH) of the chiral ligand is involved in the stabilization of the hydrogenation transition state through the formation of a hydrogen bonding interaction (e.g., NH . . .O=C) [36].This interaction also strongly influences the enantiodiscrimination of the catalytic reaction through affecting the orientation of the substrate to the catalyst.As ligand L15 has no OH, the hydrogenation necessarily involves the cooperation of its internal amino site.For L1, however, it is surmised that the catalytic process is promoted by its O-containing moiety instead of the amino group.The different orientation of the substrate in the two cases may be responsible for the opposite selectivities of the two systems.Obviously, it cannot be excluded that conformational differences or the hemilability of the PNN ligand [37] also play an important role in the distinct catalytic behavior.Nevertheless, the catalytic results obtained by L1 and L15 emphasize the fact that an apparently minor modification in the ligand structure, i.e., the introduction of a competing protic functionality (e.g., OH site) into a chiral tridentate ligand, represents a useful tool to reverse enantioselectivity without changing the source of chirality in the catalyst.
Motivated by the high enantioselectivity achieved by L1, we decided to broaden the scope of the ketonic substrates.A variety of aromatic ketones were hydrogenated under highly concentrated conditions at a substrate/catalyst molar ratio of 1000 (Figure 6).Although alcohols can be considered green reaction media, the minimization of their use as solvents is also important as it can help to prevent the generation of hazardous waste [38][39][40].Additionally, the reduction in the amount of solvent in chemical syntheses may lead to more energy-efficient technologies, increased reaction rates and reduced batch sizes.Although there are several literature examples for the hydrogenation of ketones at elevated substrate concentrations (>10 mmol substrate/mL solvent) in high S/C molar ratio experiments, e.g., [11,19,22,25,[41][42][43][44], substrate screening with Ir(PNN)-or Ir(PNO)-based simple ketone hydrogenation catalysts is generally performed at a concentration range of 0.2-3 mmol substrate/mL solvent.In the present study, the substrate screening tests for S1-20 were conducted at concentrations of 5 or 10 mmol substrate/mL solvent depending on the solubility of the substrate at room temperature in ethanol (Figure 6).
To our delight, the catalyst afforded the product (P1-P20) of the hydrogenation reaction in high yields and with good to excellent enantioselectivities under the highly concentrated conditions.The hydrogenation of substrates with electron-donating aryl substituents led to generally higher enantioselectivities (S2-S4, S9) compared to those with electronwithdrawing groups (S5-S8, S10 and S11).It is important to note that ketones with higher alkyl carbonyl substituents (S14-S19) gave excellent enantioselectivities (up to 98% ee) under the concentrated conditions.In contrast, the hydrogenation of dialkyl ketones S21 and S22 provided low optical yields.In order to explore the limits of the catalyst, we decided to further increase the concentration of the substrate.In our catalytic experiments, the concentration could be increased to 100 mmol/mL ethanol at substrate/catalyst molar ratio of 500 with complete conversion after 20 h (Table 2).Additionally, only a minor decrease in enantioselectivity could be observed under these conditions.Considering the amount of the solvent (50 µL) relative to the substrate (585 µL acetophenone), ethanol can be regarded as an additive rather than a solvent.Based on the outcome of the comparative experiments and literature findings, we proposed a mechanism for the hydrogenation of ketonic substrates (Figure 7).The catalytically active trihydrido-Ir(III) complexes are formed in the reaction between the chiral ligand and the Ir precursor in the presence of a base under hydrogen pressure [12,17,20].As the acidity of the coordinated OH (X = H) is increased, due to its coordination to the transition metal, the hydroxyl group can be deprotonated by the excess base under hydrogenation conditions (X = Li) [45].In this scenario, a C=O . . .Li-type electrostatic interaction links the substrate and the catalysts and can be responsible for stabilizing the transition state [18,46].The transfer of the hydride from the Ir-H unit to the substrate and the subsequent reaction of the complex with H 2 regenerate the catalytically active species.Based on the outcome of the comparative experiments and literature findings, we proposed a mechanism for the hydrogenation of ketonic substrates (Figure 7).The catalytically active trihydrido-Ir(III) complexes are formed in the reaction between the chiral ligand and the Ir precursor in the presence of a base under hydrogen pressure [12,17,20].As the acidity of the coordinated OH (X = H) is increased, due to its coordination to the transition metal, the hydroxyl group can be deprotonated by the excess base under hydrogenation conditions (X = Li) [45].In this scenario, a C=O … Li-type electrostatic interaction links the substrate and the catalysts and can be responsible for stabilizing the transition state [18,46].The transfer of the hydride from the Ir-H unit to the substrate and the subsequent reaction of the complex with H2 regenerate the catalytically active species.In order to shed light on the structural features of the catalytically active species, we performed density functional theory geometry optimizations for complex [IrH3(L1)] using the CAM-B3LYP functional combination with the SDD basis set and pseudopotential for Ir as well as the 6-31G* basis set for the rest of the atoms.Considering the possible conformations of the six-(chair or twist) and five-membered ring (δ-or λ-skew) and the two possible configurations of the stereogenic nitrogen ((R) or (S)) in the pincer-type complex, the structure of eight different stereoisomers were optimized (Table S1).The DFT calculations showed that in the lowest energy structure the six-membered ring adopts a chair In order to shed light on the structural features of the catalytically active species, we performed density functional theory geometry optimizations for complex [IrH 3 (L1)] using the CAM-B3LYP functional combination with the SDD basis set and pseudopotential for Ir as well as the 6-31G* basis set for the rest of the atoms.Considering the possible conformations of the six-(chair or twist) and five-membered ring (δ-or λ-skew) and the two possible configurations of the stereogenic nitrogen ((R) or (S)) in the pincer-type complex, the structure of eight different stereoisomers were optimized (Table S1).The DFT calculations showed that in the lowest energy structure the six-membered ring adopts a chair conformation with axially and equatorially disposed methyl substituents moving from the phosphorus towards the nitrogen along the carbon backbone (Figure 8).The five-membered ring is stabilized in a λ-skew conformation and the stereogenic N-atom is fixed in (R)-configuration.As the lowest energy isomer is at least 12 kJ/mol more stable compared to the other optimized structures, one would presume that the formation of the complex occurs stereoselectively.Although ligands with a simple alkane-diyl backbone are often considered "stereolabile" systems, our study clearly shows that these types of compounds are capable of stereoselective coordination, which plays a key role in efficient chirality transfer.

Materials and Methods
All manipulations were carried out under argon using Schlenk techniques.Solvents were purified, dried, and deoxygenated by standard methods.Compounds L1-3 [26], L6, L11 [27], L13 [32], L14 [33], L15 [35] and 3 [30] were prepared according to the reported literature method.All other starting materials were purchased from Sigma Aldrich and used without further purification. 31P{ 1 H}-, 13 C{ 1 H}-and 1 H-NMR measurements were conducted on a Bruker Avance 400 spectrometer (NMR Laboratory, University of Pannonia) operating at 161.98, 100.61 and 400.13 MHz, respectively.HR-MS experiments were carried out on a maXis II UHR ESI-QTOF mass spectrometer (Bruker, Bremen, Germany).A CE instrument (7100 model, Santa Clara, CA, USA) was used to inject and transport the samples.otofControl (version 4.1, build: 3.5, Bruker) controlled the MS instrument.Compass DataAnalysis (version: 4.4, build: 200.55.2969,Bruker, Billerica, MA, USA) was used to evaluate the data.Gas chromatography analysis was performed using an Agilent Technologies 6850 instrument; HPLC analysis was carried out using a Hewlett Packard Series 1050 instrument.Details of the analysis are available in the Supplementary Material.

Molecules 2024 , 19 Figure 2 .
Figure 2. Synthesis of PNO ligands via ring opening of cyclic sulfates.(Values in parentheses represent the yield of the synthesis relative to the corresponding cyclic sulfate 1).

Figure 2 .
Figure 2. Synthesis of PNO ligands via ring opening of cyclic sulfates.(Values in parentheses represent the yield of the synthesis relative to the corresponding cyclic sulfate 1).

Figure 2 .
Figure 2. Synthesis of PNO ligands via ring opening of cyclic sulfates.(Values in parentheses represent the yield of the synthesis relative to the corresponding cyclic sulfate 1).

Figure 3 .
Figure 3. Synthesis of PNO ligands with tertiary amine functionality through Eschweiler-Clarke methylation.(Values in parentheses represent the yield of the synthesis).

Figure 3 .
Figure 3. Synthesis of PNO ligands with tertiary amine functionality through Eschweiler-Clarke methylation.(Values in parentheses represent the yield of the synthesis).

Figure 4 .
Figure 4. Multistep synthesis of ligand L12 starting from cyclic sulfate (R,R)-1a.(Yield of 5 is calculated relative to 3 and yield of L12 is calculated relative to 5).

Figure 4 .
Figure 4. Multistep synthesis of ligand L12 starting from cyclic sulfate (R,R)-1a.(Yield of 5 is calculated relative to 3 and yield of L12 is calculated relative to 5).

Figure 6 .
Figure 6.Substrate screening in the Ir-catalyzed asymmetric hydrogenation using chiral ligand L1.Figure 6.Substrate screening in the Ir-catalyzed asymmetric hydrogenation using chiral ligand L1.

Figure 6 .
Figure 6.Substrate screening in the Ir-catalyzed asymmetric hydrogenation using chiral ligand L1.Figure 6.Substrate screening in the Ir-catalyzed asymmetric hydrogenation using chiral ligand L1.

Figure 7 .
Figure 7. Proposed mechanism for the asymmetric hydrogenation catalyzed by Ir/L1.

Figure 7 .
Figure 7. Proposed mechanism for the asymmetric hydrogenation catalyzed by Ir/L1.

Molecules 2024 , 19 Figure 8 .
Figure 8. Possible stereoisomers of [IrH3(L1)] and their relative enthalpies.Atom colors: grey C, white H, orange P, blue N, red O, cyan Ir.The C-H hydrogens are omitted for clarity.(The conformation of the six-and five-membered ring and the configuration of nitrogen is chair, λ-skew and (R) in (A), chair, δ-skew and (S) in (B), twist, λ-skew and (R) in (C) and twist, δ-skew and (R) in (D)).

Figure 8 .
Figure 8. Possible stereoisomers of [IrH 3 (L1)] and their relative enthalpies.Atom colors: grey C, white H, orange P, blue N, red O, cyan Ir.The C-H hydrogens are omitted for clarity.(The conformation of the six-and five-membered ring the configuration of nitrogen is chair, λ-skew and (R) in (A), chair, δ-skew and (S) in (B), twist, λ-skew and (R) in (C) and twist, δ-skew and (R) in (D)).

Table 1 .
Optimization of reaction conditions using L1.

Table 1 .
Optimization of reaction conditions using L1.

Table 2 .
Asymmetric hydrogenation of acetophenone: the effect of substrate concentration.Reaction time: 20 h, temperature: RT, H 2 pressure: 30 bar.The conversion and enantioselectivity were determined by GC equipped with a chiral column.The prevailing product enantiomer is (R) in each case.