Robust unsymmetric pincer-type Ru(II) catalyst containing proton-responsive hydroxypyridyl fragment for /3-alkylation of secondary alcohols with primary alcohols

A highly efficient metal-ligand bifunctional pincer-type Ru(II) catalyst (LOH-Ru-Cl) containing proton -responsive 2-hydroxypyridyl group has been designed and synthesized. The as-synthesized Ru(II) catalyst was definitely characterized by single-crystal X-ray diffraction. The developed Ru(II) catalyst exhibited excellent performance for the /3-alkylation of secondary alcohols with primary alcohols. The optimized experiments have demonstrated that the existence of hydroxyl (-OH) group, as well as its position con-tained in pyridine ligand are crucial for the /3-alkylation reaction. As far as we know, this is the first in-vestigation towards the effect of position of hydroxyl (-OH) group contained in unsymmetric pincer-type catalyst on the performance of /3-alkylation. The developed LOH-Ru-Cl catalyst may provide an enlighten-ing role for synthesis of Ru(II) catalyst contained various position of hydroxyl (-OH) groups for industrial /3-alkylation reactions.(c) 2023 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.