A series of new iridium complexes, IrCl（COD）（TMOPP） （1） [COD=1,5-cyclooctadiene, TMOPP=tris（4- methoxyphenyl）phosphine], IrCl（COD）（TFMPP） （2） [TFMPP = tris（4-trifluoromethylphenyl）phosphine], IrCl（COD）（BDNA） （3） [BDNA= 1,8-bis（diphenylphosphinomethyl）naphthalene], IrCl（COD）（BISBI） （4） [BISBI= 2,2＇-bis（diphenylphosphinomethyl）biphenyl] and IrCl（COD）（BDPB） （5） [BDPB= 1,2-bis（diphenylphosphinomethyl）benzene], were synthesized and characterized by NMR spectra and elemental analyses. In order to obtain the relationships between complex structures and their catalytic properties, IrCl（COD）（DPPM） （6） [DPPM = bis（diphenylphosphino）methane], IrCl（COD）（DPPE） （7） [DPPE= 1,2-bis（diphenylphosphino）ethane], IrCl（COD）（DPPP） （8） [DPPP=1,3-bis（diphenylphosphino）propane] and IrCl（COD）（TPP） （9） [TPP=triphenylphosphine], were also synthesized according to the reported methods. The hydrogenation results showed that the low electronic density at the central metal was favorable to increase the catalytic activity for the hydrogenation of avermectin, but decrease the selectivity to ivermectin. The complex with a large chelating ring and a bulky chelating backbone would easily cause the cleavage of C-O bond in avermectin to give a byproduct avermectin aglycon.
