Mechanistic Investigations on Bismuth Catalyzed Reduction of Ketones and Phosphine Oxides

Lewis acidic bismuth compounds have found catalytic applications in the reduction of unsaturated bonds. In this work, we present the inferences from the mechanistic studies on the catalytic reduction of ketones and phosphine oxides using the organobismuth dication [NMe2C6H4Bi(L)3][Al{OC(CF3)3}4] in the presence of silanes as reducing agents. Experiments and computations converge to a Si-H activation pathway in the reduction process.