Manganese-Catalyzed Direct Deoxygenation of Primary Alcohols

Deoxygenation of alcohols is an important tool in the repertoire of defunctionalization methods in modern synthetic chemistry. We report the base-metal-catalyzed direct deoxygenation of benzylic and aliphatic primary alcohols via oxidative dehydrogenation/Wolff–Kishner reduction. The reaction is catalyzed by a well-defined PNP pincer complex of Earth-abundant manganese, evolving H₂, N₂, and water as the only byproducts