Alcohols, aryl => ketones

Thakar and Subba Rao showed that reductions with diborane give the same result regardless of whether diborane is generated externally or produced internally by the action of NaBH4 and boron trifluoride or aluminum chloride. They found that alicyclic or dialkyl ketones are not reduced beyond the alcohol stage even under drastic conditions however, diaryl ketones are hydrogenolyzed under normal conditions, while aryl ketones or a,i5-unsatu-rated ketones are hydrogenolyzed, in part, under drastic conditions. 

Acylation (Sections 16.3,21.4) The introduction of an acyl group, —COR, onto a molecule. For example, acylation of an alcohol yields an ester, acylation of an amine yields an amide, and acylation of an aromatic ring yields an alkyl aryl ketone. 

Either or both of the R groups may be aryl. In general, dialkyl ketones and cyclic ketones react more rapidly than alkyl aryl ketones, and these more rapidly than diaryl ketones. The latter require sulfuric acid and do not react in concentrated HCl, which is strong enough for dialkyl ketones. Dialkyl and cyclic ketones react sufficiently faster than diaryl or aryl alkyl ketones or carboxylic acids or alcohols that these functions may be present in the same molecule without interference. Cyclic ketones give lactams. 

Answer Ester disconnection gives a tertiary alcohol (4S), Of the three possible Grignard disconnections, (a) is most helpful as it requires the Mannich product (49) of an aryl ketone (50) available by the Friedel-Crafts reaction. 

In another context, chiral thioimidazolidine ligands have been successfully applied to the ruthenium-catalysed asymmetric hydrogen transfer of several aryl ketones by Kim et al., furnishing the corresponding chiral alcohols with high yields and enantioselectivities of up to 77% ee (Scheme 9.12). ... 

The majority of catalytic enantioselective allylation reactions involve the chiral Lewis-acid-catalysed additions of allylsilanes or allylstannanes to carbonyl compounds. Monothiobinaphthol has been used by Woodward et al. as a chiral promoter in the enantioselective catalytic allylation of aryl ketones with impure Sn(allyl)4, prepared from allyl chloride, air-oxidised magnesium and SnCl4. Therefore, the allylation of arylketones in these conditions was achieved very efficiently, since the corresponding allylic alcohols were formed in... 

Other S/N ligands have been investigated in the enantioselective catalytic reduction of ketones with borane. Thus, Mehler and Martens have reported the synthesis of sulfur-containing ligands based on the L-methionine skeleton and their subsequent application as new chiral catalysts for the borane reduction of ketones." The in situ formed chiral oxazaborolidine catalyst has been used in the reduction of aryl ketones, providing the corresponding alcohols in nearly quantitative yields and high enantioselectivities of up to 99% ee, as shown in Scheme 10.60. 

The PMHS/TBAF system provides both an excellent and practical approach to the reduction of aryl ketones to the benzyl alcohols.278 Similarly, the PMHS/ Triton B combination gives high yields of the benzyl alcohols.278... 

Scheme 3.11 Partial mechanistic scheme for the hydrogenation of aryl ketones to give the (S)-alcohol catalyzed by RuCI2((R)-binap)((R,R)-dpen)/KO Bu/H2 as based on the observed mechanism for RuH2((R)-binap)(NH2CMe2CMe2NH2).

It is well accepted that the asymmetric reduction of simple dialkyl ketones generally proceeds with low enantioselectivity.68 Ohkuma et al.69 reported that hydrogenation of simple ketones can be achieved using Ru(II) catalysts in the presence of diamine and alcoholic KOH in 2-propanol. Promising results have been achieved in the asymmetric hydrogenation of alkyl aryl ketones with a mixture of an Ru-BINAP complex, chiral diamine, and KOH (Scheme 6-33). 

The quininium and quinidinium fluoride catalysts, 10 (R=H etc., X=F) and 8 (R=H, X=F), were used for the asymmetric reduction of alkyl aryl ketones in conjunction with silanes.1751 One of the most efficient silanes proved to be tris(trimethylsiloxy)silane, which together with 8 (R=H, X=F) reduced acetophenone to give the alcohol 102 in almost quantitative yield with 78 % ee, as shown in Scheme 31. The... 

Enantioselective reduction of ketones.1 The ability of diborane in combination with the vic-amino alcohol (S)-2-amino-3-methyl-l,l-diphenyl-l-butanol (12, 31) to effect enantioselective reduction of alkyl aryl ketones involves formation of an intermediate chiral oxazaborolidine, which can be isolated and used as a catalyst for enantioselective borane reductions (equation I). 

This observation has led to the preparation of more effective bicyclic oxaza-borolidines such as 1, prepared from (S)-(-)-2-(diphenylhydroxymethyl)pyrrolidine and BH3 (la) or methylboronic acid (lb). Both reagents catalyze borane reduction of alkyl aryl ketones to furnish (R)-alcohols in > 95% ee, by face-selective hydride transfer within a complex such as B. Catalyst lb is somewhat more effective than... 

Benzyl alcohols Aryl alkyl carbinols (11) can be oxidized to ketones (12) by the direct electrochemical method (Eq. 4) since they possess their oxidation potentials at around 2.0 V versus SCE (saturated calomel electrode) however, cleavage products decrease the selectivity [14]. 

The HOPG (highly oriented pyrolytic graphite) carbon electrode chemically modified with (5[-phenylalanine at the basal surface led to 2% ee in the reduction of 4-acetylpyridine [377]. A cathode modified with a chiral poly(pyrrole) reduced 4-methylbenzophenone or acetophenone in DMF/LiBr and phenol as proton donor to 1-phenylethanol with up to 17% ee [382]. Alkyl aryl ketones have been reduced to the corresponding alcohols at a Hg cathode in DMF/water in the presence of (1R,2S)-A,A-dimethylephedrinium tetrafluorobo-rate (DET), producing (5 )-l-phenylethanol with 55% ee from acetophenone. Cyclovoltammetry supports an enantioselective protonation of the intermediate (PhCOH(CH3)) [383]. 

In situ production of phosphine-free CuH from CuCl or CuOAc (0.3-1.0 equivalents), in the presence of an excess of PhMe2SiH in DM I at room temperature, displays a remarkable preference for reductions of aryl ketones (e.g., 15) over aliphatic ones such as 16 (Eq. 5.23) [46]. Reactions require a day or more to reach completion, concentrations of 0.5 M notwithstanding, but yields have been uniformly good (77-88%) for the few cases examined. Aldehydes, however, show no such selectivity and are reduced to the corresponding primary alcohols, albeit in high yields. 

---