Takasago has published a paper entitled "Highly Productive α-Alkylation of Ketones with Alcohols Mediated by an Ir-Oxalamidato/Solid Base Catalyst System" in Organic Process Research & Development.

Org. Process Res. Dev. 2020, 24, 2772-2779.

https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acs.oprd.0c00362

The paper reports a highly productive catalyst system for a-alkylation of ketones via hydrogen borrowing. a-alkylaltion of ketone is a fundamental transformation in organic chemistry. Conventional protocols, which use alkyl halides as alkylation agents, leave toxicity and environment issues. On the other hand, hydrogen borrowing, which uses alcohols as alkylating agents, has recently attracted attention as a safe and green alternative. However, catalyst productivities of them remained low (typical turnover number 10-1000) and insufficient for industrial uses. The newly developed Ir-oxalamidato/solid base catalyst system achieved a practical turnover number of 10,000-40,000.