Editorial pubs.acs.org/OPRD
Invited Academic Review Focused on Catalytic Reductions
I
Notes
n the ever important goal to increase the mutual awareness of the research and development work conducted in academia and industry alike, there is a strong editorial support from Organic Process Research & Development to solicit review articles from leading, frontline academic researchers. The idea behind this is, on the one hand, to offer a platform for sharing top-notch science in an environment which, by virtue of its connection to the field of applied chemistry, might be seen as less rooted in the academic “soil”. On the other hand, there is an outspoken ambition to raise the profile and esteem of the industrial research and development also amongst academics with little or no exposure to industry. Against this backdrop, it is our sincere pleasure to present to you this invited academic review by Professor Matthias Beller and co-workers from the world-famous Leibniz Institute for Catalysis in Rostock, in the Eastern part of Germany at the Baltic Sea. The focus of the paper lies entirely in the domain of catalytic procedures (using transition metals such as Ru, Rh, Ir, and Os) to effect the reduction of three functional groupsthe ester, the amide, and the nitrileall under homogeneous conditions. Given the plethora of compounds, not the least those in the pharmaceutical industry, that carry one or several of these functionalities as substituents in their molecular structure, improved methods to reductively transform them into other useful groups such as amines and alcohols is highly sought after. Traditionally, the functional group transformations alluded to have been carried out in stoichiometric mode using mainly a variety of hydride reagents displaying several undesired properties, especially on large scale (hazardous both from the handling point of view as well as from being a major negative impact on the environment). Heterogeneous procedures also offer an entry to these types of reactions but often require harsh conditions, which in total makes the transition into the regime of homogeneous catalysis the more desirable and attractive. What Beller and coauthors have done here is to provide an up-to-date review covering broad aspects of the current knowledge and future developments in this industrially highly significant field. We hope you will enjoy this great examination of a quickly developing area that offers interesting prospects going forward, and we conclude by thanking Professor Beller and his two colleagues for spending their valuable time in preparing a truly splendid academic review.
Views expressed in this editorial are those of the author and not necessarily the views of the ACS.
Hans-Jürgen Federsel*
Pharmaceutical Development, AstraZeneca, Macclesfield, Cheshire SK10 2NA, United Kingdom
Stefan Abele
■
Process Research Chemistry, Actelion Pharmaceuticals Ltd., Allschwil CH-4123, Switzerland
AUTHOR INFORMATION
Corresponding Author
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[email protected] © 2014 American Chemical Society
Published: February 2, 2014 288
dx.doi.org/10.1021/op400363b | Org. Process Res. Dev. 2014, 18, 288−288
