SELECTIVE HYDROGENATION OF THE CC-TRIPLE BOND IN PhCCPh BY TRIS(TRIPHENYLPHOSPHINE)COBALT ACTIVATED NaBH4; DEUTERIUM TRACING EXPERIMENTS

Article abstract of DOI:10.1016/S0022-328X(00)98620-0

Sodium borohydride does not on its own react with diphenylacetylene, but becomes an active hydrogenation agent in the presence of (Ph3P)3CoCl.Unlike systems involving other catalysts, e.g. cobalt halides in ethanol, this is a selective reagent for hydrogenation in which an alkyne is selectively hydrogenated to cis and trans alkenes.The role of NaBH4 in this hydrogenation and isomerization has been studied by deuterium labelling.A brief comparison is made with other active catalysts in this system like (Ph3P)3CoBH4.