Zwitterion-Induced Organic–Metal Hybrid Catalysis in Aerobic Oxidation

In many metal catalyses, the traditional strategy of removing chloride ions is to add silver salts via anion exchange to obtain highly active catalysts. Herein, we reported an alternative strategy of removing chloride anions from ruthenium trichloride using an organic [P+-N–] zwitterionic compound via multiple hydrogen bond interactions. The resultant organic–metal hybrid catalytic system has successfully been applied to the aerobic oxidation of alcohols, tetrahydroquinolines, and indolines under mild conditions. The performance of zwitterion is far superior to that of many other common Lewis bases or Brønsted bases. Mechanistic studies revealed that the zwitterion triggers the dissociation of chloride from ruthenium trichloride via nonclassical hydrogen bond interaction. Preliminary studies show that the zwitterion is applicable to catalytic transfer semi-hydrogenation.