The Ru-MACHO complex acts as a precatalyst for a plethora of significant catalytic transformations. However, since its discovery approximately two decades ago, most enhancement attempts have been limited to varying the P-substituents for increasing catalyst performance or replacing Ru for greener alternatives. In this study we synthesize novel trans-L monohydrido iPrRu-MACHO complex derivatives that can act as precatalysts operating under mild conditions while maintaining high activity and selectivity in a variety of chemical transformations. Specifically, we deeply studied their potentially trans influence and investigated their catalytic efficiency for CO2 hydrogenation, formic acid dehydrogenation, and levulinic acid hydrogenation, and we compared their activity with their commercially available precursor (iPrRu-MACHO).
Tran et al. (Thu,) studied this question.