Complex hydrides acids

A traditional method for such reductions involves the use of a reducing metal such as zinc or tin in acidic solution. Examples are the procedures for preparing l,2,3,4-tetrahydrocarbazole[l] or ethyl 2,3-dihydroindole-2-carbox-ylate[2] (Entry 3, Table 15.1), Reduction can also be carried out with acid-stable hydride donors such as acetoxyborane[4] or NaBHjCN in TFA[5] or HOAc[6]. Borane is an effective reductant of the indole ring when it can complex with a dialkylamino substituent in such a way that it can be delivered intramolecularly[7]. Both NaBH -HOAc and NaBHjCN-HOAc can lead to N-ethylation as well as reduction[8]. This reaction can be prevented by the use of NaBHjCN with temperature control. At 20"C only reduction occurs, but if the temperature is raised to 50°C N-ethylation occurs[9]. Silanes cun also be used as hydride donors under acidic conditions[10]. Even indoles with EW substituents, such as ethyl indole-2-carboxylate, can be reduced[ll,l2]. 

Sodium borohydride and potassium borohydride [13762-51 -1] are unique among the complex hydrides because they are stable in alkaline solution. Decomposition by hydrolysis is slow in water, but is accelerated by increasing acidity or temperature. 

In principle, complex hydrides (NaBHj, LiAlH ) ought to react similarly with 4-pyrones and lead after treatment with Bronsted or Lewis acids to 4-unsubstituted pyrylium salts. This reaction has not been reported the reduction of 2-pyrones with LiAlH4 results in ring opening. " ... 

Ethyl (Z)-2-bromomethyl-2-heptenoate and aldehydes condense on reaction with chromium(II) chloride to furnish cw-3,4-disubstituted dihydro-3-methylene-2(3 //)-( uranones exclusively16, indicating that a (Z)-allylchromium complex might serve as reactive intermediate in the. mv-selec-tive addition step due to the bulky 2-substitucnt. Alternatively, an acyclic transition state for the reaction of the ( )-diastereomer, mediated by the Lewis acid dichloroaluminum hydride, has been discussed16. 

Then we established that borane and its derivatives are acidic reducing agents (31-34), in contrast to the basic reducing agents, the complex hydrides. 

The presence of water is essential for the success of these reductions. In anhydrous THF, for example, treatment of iV-benzoylimidazole with NaBH4 leads to benzyl benzoate as the main product (73%), along with 19% benzyl alcohol.[33] Other reports, however, describe the conversion of carboxylic acid imidazolides to the corresponding alcohols by complex hydrides in organic solvents. Further alcohols have been synthesized via imidazolides ... 

A mechanism similar to Scheme 10 was proposed, involving CO addition, followed by H20 addition (in lieu of hydroxide anion) to form a metallocarboxylic acid complex. Then, decomposition to C02 and a metal hydride was proposed, followed by hydride elimination. Table 15 provides data from reaction testing in the temperature range 140 to 180 °C. In later testing, they compared Rh and Ir complexes for the reduction of benzalacetone under water-gas shift conditions. 

ACID ANHYDRIDES, ACYL HALIDES, ALKALI METALS ALKYLALUMINIUM DERIVATIVES, ALKYLNON-METAL HALIDES COMPLEX HYDRIDES, METAL HALIDES, METAL HYDRIDES METAL OXIDES, NON-METAL HALIDES (AND THEIR OXIDES)... 

Following earlier studies of the oxidation of formic and oxalic acids by pyridinium fluoro-, chloro-, and bromo-chromates, Banerji and co-workers have smdied the kinetics of oxidation of these acids by 2, 2Tbipyridinium chlorochromate (BPCC) to C02. The formation constant of the initially formed BPCC-formic acid complex shows little dependence on the solvent, whilst a more variable rate constant for its decomposition to products correlates well with the cation-solvating power. This indicates the formation of an electron-deficient carbon centre in the transition state, possibly due to hydride transfer in an anhydride intermediate HCOO—Cr(=0)(0H)(Cl)—O—bpyH. A cyclic intermediate complex, in which oxalic acid acts as a bidentate ligand, is proposed to account for the unfavourable entropy term observed in the oxidation of this acid. 

The initial reaction is effectively the same as with an aldehyde or ketone, in that hydride is transferred from the reducing agent, and that the tetrahedral anionic intermediate then complexes with the Lewis acid aluminium hydride. However, the typical reactivity of the carboxylic acid derivatives arises because of the presence of a leaving group. 

Catalysts suitable specifically for reduction of carbon-oxygen bonds are based on oxides of copper, zinc and chromium Adkins catalysts). The so-called copper chromite (which is not necessarily a stoichiometric compound) is prepared by thermal decomposition of ammonium chromate and copper nitrate [50]. Its activity and stability is improved if barium nitrate is added before the thermal decomposition [57]. Similarly prepared zinc chromite is suitable for reductions of unsaturated acids and esters to unsaturated alcohols [52]. These catalysts are used specifically for reduction of carbonyl- and carboxyl-containing compounds to alcohols. Aldehydes and ketones are reduced at 150-200° and 100-150 atm, whereas esters and acids require temperatures up to 300° and pressures up to 350 atm. Because such conditions require special equipment and because all reductions achievable with copper chromite catalysts can be accomplished by hydrides and complex hydrides the use of Adkins catalyst in the laboratory is very limited. 

The domain of hydrides and complex hydrides is reduction of carbonyl functions (in aldehydes, ketones, acids and acid derivatives). With the exception of boranes, which add across carbon-carbon multiple bonds and afford, after hydrolysis, hydrogenated products, isolated carbon-carbon double bonds resist reduction with hydrides and complex hydrides. However, a conjugated double bond may be reduced by some hydrides, as well as a triple bond to the double bond (p. 44). Reductions of other functions vary with the hydride reagents. Examples of applications of hydrides are shown in Procedures 14-24 (pp. 207-210). 

Benzylic halides are reduced very easily using complex hydrides. In a-chloroethylbenzene lithium aluminium deuteride replaced the benzylic chlorine by deuterium with inversion of configuration (optical purity 79%) [537]. Borane replaced chlorine and bromine in chloro- and bromodiphenylme-thane, chlorine in chlorotriphenylmethane and bromine in benzyl bromide by hydrogen in 90-96% yields. Benzyl chloride, however, was not reduced [5iSj. Benzylic chlorine and bromine in a jy/n-triazine derivative were hydrogeno-lyzed by sodium iodide in acetic acid in 55% and 89% yields, respectively [5i9]. 

Ketimines are reduced to amines very easily by catalytic hydrogenation, by complex hydrides and by formic acid. They are intermediates in reductive amination of ketones (p. 134). An example of the reduction of a ketimine is conversion of 3-aminocarbonyl-2,3-diphenylazirine to the corresponding aziridine by sodium borohydride (yield 73%), by potassium borohydride (yield 71%) and by sodium bis (2-methoxyethoxy) aluminum hydride (yield 71%) [939]. 

The reduction of free acids to alcohols became practical only after the advent of complex hydrides. Lithium aluminum hydride reduces carboxylic acids to alcohols in ether solution very rapidly in an exothermic reaction. Because of the presence of acidic hydrogen in the carboxylic acid an additional equivalent of lithium aluminum hydride is needed beyond the amount required for the reduction. The stoichiometric ratio is 4 mol of the acid to 3 mol of lithium aluminum hydride (Equation 12, p. 18). Trimethylacetic add was reduced to neopentyl alcohol in 92% yield, and stearic acid to 1-octadecanol in 91% yield. Dicarboxylic sebacic acid was reduced to 1,10-decanedioI even if less than the needed amount of lithiiun aluminum hydride was used [968]. 

Reduction of aromatic carboxylic acids to alcohols can be achieved by hydrides and complex hydrides, e.g. lithium aluminum hydride 968], sodium aluminum hydride [55] and sodium bis 2-methoxyethoxy)aluminum hydride [544, 969, 970], and with borane (diborane) [976] prepared from sodium borohydride and boron trifluoride etherate [971, 977] or aluminum chloride [755, 975] in diglyme. Sodium borohydride alone does not reduce free carboxylic acids. Anthranilic acid was reduced to the corresponding alcohol by electroreduction in sulfuric acid at 20-30° in 69-78% yield [979],... 

Reductions of anhydrides of monocarboxylic acids to alcohols are very rare but can be accomplished by complex hydrides [55, 99]. More frequent are reductions of cyclic anhydrides of dicarboxylic acids, which give lactones. Such reductions were carried out by catalytic hydrogenation, by complex hydrides and by metals. 

Iron and acetic or dilute hydrochloric acid can be safely used for the reduction of nitro group to an amino group in nitro esters. The problem arises when a nitro ester is to be reduced to a nitro alcohol. Nitro groups are not inert toward the best reagents for the reduction of esters to alcohols, complex hydrides. However the rate of reduction of a nitro group by lithium... 

Redaction of / -toluenesulfonyIhydrazides by complex hydrides yidds hydrocarbons. The TV -tosyl hydrazide of stearic acid gave a 50-60% yield of octa-decane on reduction with lithium aluminum hydride [577]. 

Experimentally, this pathway has been well established from IR spectra of the [CpRuH(C0)(PCy3)]/(CF3)30H system in CH2CI2, where large variations in hydride/alcohol ratios did not affect slow transformation of the H H complexes to hydrogen-bonded ion pairs with k values between 1.4 X 10 and 1.6 X 10 s [25]. Activation parameters for this step (Table 10.3) have been determined in hexane [6]. It is probable that a similar mechanism operates for protonation of the hydrides [ReH2(NO)(CO)(PR3)2] with CF3COOH (Table 10.3) in CD2CI2, where the reaction corresponds to first-order kinetics on the acid at hydride/acid ratios > 1 [7]. 

Complex hydrides are reagents of choice for reduction of oximes, oxime ethers and nitrones. Hydrogenation is rarely used for reduction of these compounds although several examples are known. Other methods, especially reduction with silanes in the presence of acid, can also be useful for providing alternative stereochemical outcomes. 

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