Peter Brandt

TL;DR: In this tutorial review recent mechanistic studies on transition metal-catalyzed hydrogen transfer reactions are discussed and an important question is whether the substrate coordinates to the metal (inner-sphere hydrogen transfer) or if there is a direct concerted transfer of hydrogen from the metal to substrate (outer-spheres hydrogen transfer).

TL;DR: The mechanism of the Ru(arene)(amino alcohol)-catalyzed transfer hydrogenation of ketones using isopropyl alcohol as the hydrogen source has been studied by means of hybrid density functional methods as discussed by the authors.

TL;DR: The mechanism of the copper-catalyzed aziridination of alkenes using [N-(p-toluenesulfonyl)imino]phenyliodinane (PhINTs) as the nitrene source has been elucidated by a combination of hybrid density as mentioned in this paper.

TL;DR: A significantly lower activation barrier for the alcohol-mediated split of dihydrogen, as compared to the nonalcohol-mediated process, a finding of utmost implication also for the diphosphine/diamine-mediated enantioselective hydrogenation of ketones.

TL;DR: It was found that a six-member-ring backbone of the rigid ligand structure was preferred over seven- or five-member rings, and good to excellent enantioselectivity can be obtained for typically difficult substrates.