Monsanto Company

William C Christopfel

William S Knowles

The invention is a new family of phosphine compounds which can be used to make optically active metal coordination complex catalysts which combine high efficiency with a capability of performing rapidly (high efficiency and rapidly being established from Tables I, II and III as being greater than 75% efficiency and in times of not more than a few hours, preferably less than one hour) in water and thus avoiding solvent recovery and loss problems. The catalysts can be used in some alcoholic mediums as well as in some aqueous mediums. These catalysts are useful in catalytic asymmetric hydrogenation of some olefinic compounds. The new phosphine compounds are made from novel phosphine oxides.

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Oakland, CA, United States of America

William C Christopfel