Fast and Chemoselective Transfer Hydrogenation of Aldehydes Catalyzed by a Terdentate CNN Ruthenium Complex [RuCl(CNN)(dppb)]

Aromatic, aliphatic and α,β‐unsaturated aldehydes are quickly, quantitatively and chemoselectively reduced to primary alcohols with 2‐propanol using 0.05–0.01 mol % of the terdentate CNN ruthenium complex RuCl(CNN)(dppb) ( 1 ) [HCNN=6‐(4′‐methylphenyl)‐2‐pyridylmethylamine; dppb=Ph 2 P(CH 2 ) 4 PPh 2 ] in the presence of potassium carbonate (K 2 CO 3 ; 1–10 mol %) as a weak base, affording TOF values up to 5.0×10 5 h −1 .