Nanoscale Fe 2 O 3 -Based Catalysts for Selective Hydrogenation of Nitroarenes to Anilines

Lighter Hydrogenation Catalysts Enzymes have evolved to use abundant metals such as iron, cobalt, and nickel for redox catalysis. However, synthetic catalysis has generally relied on the rarer, heavier relatives of these elements: ruthenium, rhodium, iridium, palladium, and platinum (see the Perspective by Bullock ). Friedfeld et al. (p. 1076 ) used high-throughput screening to show that the right cobalt precursor can be activated for asymmetric hydrogenation catalysis by using the traditional ligands developed for the precious metals. Zuo et al. (p. 1080 ) focused on iron, demonstrating a highly effective asymmetric transfer hydrogenation catalyst that uses a ligand rationally designed after careful…