Hydrogen bonding makes a difference in the rhodium-catalyzed enantioselective hydrogenation using monodentate phosphoramidites.

A new generation of monodentate phosphoramidite ligands bearing a primary amine moiety was found to display comparable or better efficiency than bisphosphines in the Rh-catalyzed asymmetric hydrogenation of challenging substrates, such as (Z)-methyl alpha-acetoxyacrylate or (E)-beta-aryl itaconate derivatives, affording the corresponding hydrogenation products with excellent enantioselectivities (up to >99% ee). The presence of intermolecular hydrogen bonding (HB) between two monodentate ligands in the catalyst was found to be critical for excellent catalyst performance. This finding provides a basis for design and development of further catalyst systems using this type of monodentate phosphoramidite ligands.