Carboxylic acids are ubiquitous in bio-renewable and petrochemical sources of carbon. Hydrogenation of carboxylic acids to yield alcohols produces water as the only byproduct, and thus represents a possible next generation, sustainable method for the production of these alternative energy carriers/platform chemicals on a large scale. Reported herein are molecular insights into cationic mononuclear ruthenium carboxylates ([Ru(OCOR)] +) as prototypical catalysts for the hydrogenation of carboxylic acids. The substrate-derived coordinated carboxylate was found to function initially as a proton acceptor for the heterolytic cleavage of dihydrogen, and subsequently also as an acceptor for the hydride from [Ru–H] +, which was generated in the first step (self-induced catalysis). The hydrogenation proceeded selectively and at high levels of functional group tolerance, a feature that is challenging to achieve with existing heterogeneous/homogeneous catalyst systems. These fundamental insights are expected to significantly benefit the future development of metal carboxylate-catalysed hydrogenation processes of bio-renewable resources.
Many structurally diverse carboxylic acids are available from renewable and petrochemical sources. Here, the authors report a method to reduce carboxylic acids to alcohols using hydrogen, with high selectivity, wherein the carboxylates form active and hydrogen-accepting parts of the catalyst system.