Zhusheng Yang, Fei Chen,* Shuxin Zhang, Yanmei He, Nianfa Yang,* and Qing-Hua Fan*

The first asymmetric hydrogenation of phenanthridines catalyzed by chiral cationic ruthenium diamine complexes has been developed with up to 92% ee and full conversions. The choice of the counteranion of the catalyst was found to be critical for achieving high enantioselectivity. In addition, the obtained 5,6-dihydrophenanthridine could be used as a chiral hydride donor for organocatalytic asymmetric transfer hydrogenation.

This work has been published in Org. Lett. 2017, 19, 1458-1461.