Acceptorless Dehydrogenative Oxidation of Secondary Alcohols Catalysed by Cp*IrIII–NHC Complexes

A series of new Ir(III) complexes with carbene ligands that contain a range of benzyl wingtip groups have been prepared and fully characterised by NMR spectroscopy, HRMS, elemental analysis and X-ray diffraction. All the complexes were active in the acceptorless dehydrogenation of alcohol substrates in 2,2,2-trifluoroethanol to give the corresponding carbonyl compounds. The most active complex bore an electron-rich carbene ligand; this complex was used to catalyse the highly efficient and chemoselective dehydrogenation of a wide range of secondary alcohols to their respective ketones, with turnover numbers up to 1660. Mechanistic studies suggested that the turnover of the dehydrogenation reaction is limited by the H2 -formation step.