The role of the support in Selective Hydrogenations promoted by Cu/Al2O

The hydrogenation of alpha-ionone has been carried out in the presence of different copper catalysts supported on inorganic oxides. Results show that Al2O3 is responsible for the alpha to beta isomerization reaction, while all the catalysts showed the same chemoselectivity. Comparison of different catalysts in the hydrogenation of the steroidal ene-dione 1 evidenced a significant difference in regioselectivity when using Cu/Si0(2).