The use of (cyclopentadienone)iron tricarbonyl complexes and ruthenium complexes for hydrogen transfer reactions

The synthesis of (cyclopentadienone)iron tricarbonyl complexes and the application of said complexes to the catalysis of ‘hydrogen borrowing’ reactions between amines and alcohols has been studied. A family of analogous (cyclopentadienone)iron tricarbonyl complexes were synthesised and used in ‘hydrogen borrowing’ with aniline and analogous alcohol reagents comprising increasing carbon chain length, in an attempt to gain more understanding of the effect of altering the electron environment of the hydroxy group of the active iron catalysts generated from the synthesised (cyclopentadienone)iron tricarbonyl complexes. Utilising an alternative set of reaction conditions, the scope of the ‘hydrogen borrowing’ methodology was extended to include amines derived from piperidine, benzylamine and other aliphatic amines. The incorporation of additional functionality (e.g. alkene or alkyne groups) into the product amines was also found to be an option of the new methodology. The synthesis of novel asymmetric (cyclopentadienone)iron tricarbonyl complexes was also attempted and a novel application of Ru(II)/TsDPEN hydrogen transfer catalysts was also discovered.