Ruthenium complexes of chiral tridentate ligands: a new class of catalyst for asymmetric ketone and imine hydrogenation

This project enabled us to develop new second generation catalysts for the hydrogenation of carbonyl groups. A mechanism-led approach was used, and kinetic data was obtained that led us to propose a mechanism for the reaction that actually enabled us to consider a broader range of catalyst structures. Studies were carried out that were designed to confirm or overturn this mechanism and in addition to confirming our proposal, developed yet further catalysts.
While we chose to continue adding data after the project finished in some cases, there are now 7 publications in respected international journals resulting from the project directly, and a recent further publication (not linked here) that was directly built on these results. The programme is still active, and has moved into some other adjacent areas.