A Survey of the Borrowing Hydrogen Approach to the Synthesis of some Pharmaceutically Relevant Intermediates

The use of the “borrowing hydrogen strategy” in the synthesis of a number of typical pharmaceutical intermediates has been investigated. The main aim of this work was to investigate the scope and limitations of current methodology using standard laboratory techniques in an industrial context. Some interesting and significant results were achieved across a diverse set of complex substrates; however several drawbacks with this approach were identified, such as the high loading, poor turnover, and susceptibility to substrate inactivation of the catalysts. These are areas which are highlighted for future investigation and improvements.