The one-pot tandem hydroformylation-reduction to synthesize alcohols from olefins is in great demand but suffering from low yields, poor selectivity and harsh condition. Herein, 1,10-phenanthroline (L1) modified Ir-catalyst proved to exhibit multiple catalysis in terms of FA dehydrogenation, hydroformylation of olefins, and transfer hydrogenation of aldehydes to accomplish the tandem hydroformylation-transfer hydrogenation of olefins with formic acid (FA) as hydrogen source, as the result of 52–70% yields for the target alcohols and the corresponding formate esters (obtained upon esterification of the alcohol with FA). In this sequence, only the use of FA with trans- and cis-conformers could fulfill the reduction of aldehydes to the alcohols through transfer hydrogenation as well as greatly depress hydrogenation of the olefin, which universally occurred in the high pressured gaseous H₂. Both the in situ FT-IR spectroscopic analysis and the DFT-calculations verified that, over L1-[Ir(COD)Cl]₂ catalyst, cis-FA serving as the hydride-ligand was responsible for the efficient dehydrogenation of FA to release H₂ along with CO₂, and trans-FA serving as the carbonyl O-containing ligand corresponded to the transfer hydrogenation of the aldehydes to the alcohols under the same catalytic conditions.

一锅串联加氢甲酰化还原以从烯烃合成醇的需求量很大，但产率低，选择性差且条件苛刻。在此，证明1,10-菲咯啉（L1）改性的Ir催化剂在FA脱氢，烯烃的加氢甲酰化和醛的转移加氢方面表现出多重催化作用，从而完成了甲酸（FA）对烯烃的串联加氢甲酰化-转移加氢。作为氢源，目标醇和相应的甲酸酯（在醇与FA酯化后获得）的产率为52-70％。在这个序列中，仅在使用FA的反式-与顺-顺式异构体可以通过转移氢化作用实现醛向醇的还原，并大大降低了烯烃的氢化反应，而氢化反应通常发生在高压气态H _2中。无论是在原位FT-IR光谱分析和DFT-计算证实，经L1 -的[Ir（COD）CL] ₂催化剂，CIS -FA作为氢化物-配体负责FA的有效脱氢释放ħ ₂与CO沿₂，和反式FA作为含羰O型配位体对应于醛醇的转移氢化相同的催化条件下进行。