Dehydrogenation of Alcohols Using Transition Metal Catalysts: History and Applications

Dehydrogenation of primary or secondary alcohols promoted by transition metal catalysts is the key initial step in many transformations involving alcohols. Besides the formation of value-added carbonyl products, the liberation of dihydrogen has been envisioned as a potential source of energy, or as a useful reagent for further metal-catalyzed hydrogenation of unsaturated substrates. The history of alcohol dehydrogenation and its applications in various types of transformations initiated with noble transition metal and continued with 3d base metal catalysts are reported in this chapter.