Computational Study on the Deaminative Hydrogenation of Amides Catalyzed by Base Metal Complexes

Catalytic hydrogenation of amides could be an excellent option for the green atom efficient formation of alcohols and amines. However, the low reactivity of amides has been a big drawback for this reaction. In the last decade, the emergence of bifunctional catalysts for hydrogenation reactions improved the conditions for amide hydrogenation and made them feasible on larger scales. Still, the reaction mechanisms remained underinvestigated. In the course of his PhD studies, the candidate has elucidated the reaction mechanisms and bottlenecks by computational simulations at a quantum scale. With that information, the candidate proposed new catalysts that avoided such bottlenecks. Later, experimental studies proved the increased performance of the predicted catalysts.