From structure to novel reactivity in frustrated Lewis pairs

The coexistence of a strong Lewis acid and a Lewis base in solution, the so called frustrated Lewis pair, has led to the discovery of metal-free hydrogen activation. Since then, this observation has inspired numerous chemists to develop more examples. Metal-free hydrogenation is so far the most studied application of frustrated Lewis pairs in chemistry and highly efficient methodologies for a number of substrates have been developed. However, the targeted choice of a FLP-catalyst is yet rather intricate, due to the lack of an in depth understanding of FLP-reactivity. The presented structure-reactivity-relationship for hydrogenation reactions allowed the targeted development and optimization of unprecedented reactions using FLPs as catalysts. This article provides insight into FLP-reactivity by summarizing our mechanistic and synthetic work in this field. (C) 2018 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.