Copper-Catalyzed Diboron-Mediated cis-Semi-Hydrogenation of Alkynes under Facile Conditions

Abstract

Cis-alkenes are ubiquitous in biological molecules, which makes it greatly significant to develop efficient methods toward construction of cis-olefins. Herein, we reported a facile semi-hydrogenation of alkynes to cis-alkenes in an efficient way with cuprous bromide/tributylphosphine as the catalyst and bis(pinacolato)diboron/methanol as the hydrogen donor. The method features convenient and facile reaction conditions, wide substrate scope, high yields, and high stereoselectivity.