One-Step Chemo-, Regio- and Stereoselective Reduction of Ketosteroids to Hydroxysteroids over Zr-Containing MOF-808 Metal-Organic Frameworks

Zr-containing MOF-808 is a very promising heterogeneous catalyst for the selective reduction of ketosteroids to the corresponding hydroxysteroids through a Meerwein-Ponndorf-Verley (MPV) reaction. Interestingly, the process leads to the diastereoselective synthesis of elusive 17α-hydroxy derivatives in one step, whereas most chemical and biological transformations produce the 17β-OH compounds, or they require several additional steps to convert 17β-OH into 17α-OH by inverting the configuration of the 17 center. Moreover, MOF-808 is found to be stable and reusable; it is also chemoselective (only keto groups are reduced, even in the presence of other reducible groups such as C=C bonds) and regioselective (in 3,17-diketosteroids only the keto group in position 17 is reduced, while the 3-keto group remains almost intact). The kinetic rate constant and thermodynamic parameters of estrone reduction to estradiol have been obtained by a detailed temperature-dependent kinetic analysis. The results evidence a major contribution of the entropic term, thus suggesting that the diastereoselectivity of the process is controlled by the confinement of the reaction inside the MOF cavities, where the Zr⁴⁺ active sites are located.