Immobilized Chiral Metal Catalysts for Enantioselective Hydrogenation of Ketones

Chiral secondary alcohols are useful synthetic building blocks. One direct approach to chiral secondary alcohols is by catalytic reduction of ketones using molecular hydrogen or by asymmetric transfer hydrogenation. This review focuses on recent developments using immobilized chiral metal catalysts, and their role in developing greener chemistry. Immobilization of chiral ligands on silica, polymer, dendrimer and magnetite nanoparticles and their application as catalyst with metals in the hydrogenation of ketones under environmentally friendly solvent conditions is discussed.