Acceptorless dehydrogenation and dehydrogenative coupling of alcohols catalysed by protic NHC ruthenium complexes

A new family of protic NHC Ru complexes ligated with a phosphine-tethered imidazole moiety were prepared, which can act as excellent catalysts for acceptorless dehydrogenation of secondary alcohols and dehydrogenative coupling of primary and secondary alcohols, thus leading to the formation of a variety of carbonyl compounds with release of H2.