A co
mparative study of the ligand (
5–
10) effect on the rhodiu
m catalytic activity and selectivity in the ho
mogeneous hydrogenation of α,β-unsaturated oxosteroids (
1–
4) is reported. The highest activity for CC reduction was observed with phosphite ligands, being diphosphite
10 the
most active. Further
more, the presence of phosphite
6 significantly enhances the che
mo and α-diastereoselectivity for the hydrogenation reaction. The β-
methyl groups of the steroidal fra
mework lead to a very high α-diastereoselectivity, even in the absence of phosphorous ligands. Substrate
4 is the paradig
m presenting higher than 94 % α-diastereoselectivity for any catalytic syste
m studied.
The catalytic system formed from rhodium and the new diphosphite 10 also revealed a remarkable tendency for the CO reduction and a noteworthy stability.