Practical Approach to the Meerwein–Ponndorf–Verley Reduction of Carbonyl Substrates with New Aluminum Catalysts This work was partially supported by a Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research from the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, Japan.

Simple mixing of Al(OiPr)3 with the requisite ligand 1 in CH2Cl2 at room temperature smoothly generates the new, powerful aluminum catalyst 2, which efficiently catalyzes Meerwein–Ponndorf–Verley (MPV) reduction of various carbonyl substrates under mild conditions (see scheme). Scale-up experiments highlight the potential of the new MPV reduction procedure for practical use.