The reductive amination process under hydrogen at high pressure catalyzed by iron complexes is of great synthetic interest. In this work, we report density functional theory (DFT) studies on the reductive amination catalyzed by a Knolker-type iron complex. Different modifications of the catalyst are explored to improve the efficiency and guide experiments toward milder conditions. DFT calculations in conjunction with analysis of the chemical structure in terms of geometry, fragment partial charges, effective oxidation states (EOS), and aromaticity allows us to conclude that the presence of electron-withdrawing substituents on the cyclopentadienone ring induces a decrease of the activation barriers of most relevant steps, leading to a more efficient catalysis. The present work is a clear example that predictive catalysis can have a fundamental role in sustainable catalytic transformations.
We report a visible-light-induced iron-catalyzed αalkylation of ketones. The photocatalytic system is based on the single diaminocyclopentadienone iron tricarbonyl complex. Two catalytic intermediates of this complex are able to harvest light, allowing the synthesis of substituted aromatic and aliphatic ketones at room temperature using the borrowing hydrogen strategy in the presence of various substituted primary alcohols as alkylating reagents. Preliminary mechanistic studies unveil the role of light for both the dehydrogenation and reduction step.
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