Competitive hydrogenations over a ruthenium catalyst

Hydrogenations of three individual substrates (-methylstyrene, benzaldehyde, cyclohexanone) were carried out on a ruthenium catalyst. On the basis of these results, selectivities of competitive hydrogenations of -methylstyrene-benzaldehyde, benzaldehyde-cyclohexanone and -methylstyrene-cyclohexanone binary mixtures were evaluated. It was shown that the reactivity of individual substrates could be substantially different when hydrogenated competitively with another compound in a binary system.