Highly Selective and Practical Iron‐Catalyzed Formal Hydrogenation of Epoxides to Primary Alcohols Using Formic Acid.

A highly selective, efficient and practical method for synthesizing primary alcohols was presented. By using cheap Fe(BF4)2 ⋅ 6H2O and /tris[2‐(diphenylphosphino)phenyl]phosphine (L1) as catalysts with formic acid as hydrogen source, a variety of primary alcohols bearing versatile functional groups could be obtained from both alkyl‐ and aryl‐substituted epoxides under mild conditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]