217 Journal of Organometallic Chemistry, 304 (1986) 217-225 Elseviei Sequoia S.A., Lausanne - Printed in The Netherlands OPTICALLY ACTIVE NITROGEN LIGANDS III *. ENANTIOFACE-DISCRIMINATING TRANSFER HYDROGENATION OF ACETOPHENONE CATALYZED BY RHODIUM(I) COMPLEXES WITH CHIRAL 2-(2’-PYRIDYL)PYRIDINES C. BO’ITEGHI Dipartimento di Chimica dell’Universit& di Venezia, Cal/e Luga S. Marta, 2137 - 30123 Venezia (Itab) G. CHELUCCI, G. CHESSA, G. DELOGU, S. GLADIALI and F. SOCCOLINI Istituto di Chimica Applicata dell’Universitb di Sassari, Via Vienna, 2, 07100 Sassari (Italy) (Received October 21st, 1985) zyxwvutsrqponmlkjihgfedcbaZYXWVUTSRQPONMLKJIHGFEDCBA Summary The reduction of acetophenone by hydrogen transfer from isopropanol is cata- lyzed by rhodium(I) complexes containing optically active 2-(2’-pyridyl)pyridines. Optical yields up to 15% have been obtained. Introduction In recent years optically active chelating nitrogen ligands have found widespread application in asymmetric homogeneous catalysis by transition metal complexes [l]. In particular, it has been shown that in certain asymmetric processes such as hydrosilylation [2,3] and transfer hydrogenation [4,5] they often give higher optical yields than those obtained with phosphine ligands. Most of these nitrogen ligands have imine structures and are derived from the condensation reaction of 2-pyridine- carbaldehyde or 2-acetylpyridine with optically active primary amines (1). / CL R \ I ’ N c\N_R* cl-Q-R* zyxwvutsrqponmlkjihgfedcbaZYXW (1) (2) (R =H or methyl group ; R* = chirol olkyl , cycloolkyl or orolkyl group) * For part II see ref. 8. 0022-328X/86/$03.50 0 1986 Elsevier Sequoia S.A.