Continuous-flow carbonyl hydrogenation under subatmospheric to atmospheric hydrogen pressure enabled by robust heterogeneous Pt-Fe catalysts.

The reduction of carbonyl compounds, including ketones and aldehydes, to alcohols is a fundamental and important reaction in organic synthesis. One of the most ideal methods is catalytic hydrogenation, however, the hydrogenation of ketones generally requires harsh reaction conditions, such as high temperature and high pressure. We developed a bimetallic Pt-Fe nanoparticle catalyst immobilized on a composite support of dimethylpolysilane and alumina. Both ketones and aldehydes, including highly bulky and sterically hindered substrates, were smoothly hydrogenated using the newly developed catalysts under continuous-flow conditions at room temperature and under subatmospheric to atmospheric hydrogen pressure. High durability of the heterogeneous catalysts was confirmed by a long-term continuous-flow operation. Interestingly, both the combination of metal species and the metal ratio strongly influenced the catalytic performance.