Highly Selective and Practical Iron-Catalyzed Formal Hydrogenation of Epoxides to Primary Alcohols Using Formic Acid

A highly selective, efficient and practical method for synthesizing primary alcohols was presented. By using cheap Fe(BF4)(2) . 6H(2)O and /tris[2-(diphenylphosphino)phenyl]phosphine (L-1) as catalysts with formic acid as hydrogen source, a variety of primary alcohols bearing versatile functional groups could be obtained from both alkyl- and aryl-substituted epoxides under mild conditions.