Alcohols chemoselective agents

Chemoselectivity between aldehydes and ketones is demonstrated by this method in the competitive reduction of a mixture of pentanal and cyclohexanone. The ratios of primary and secondary alcohols are 75 25 when catechol is used at 0° and 79 21 when 2,2/-dihydroxybiphenyl is used at room temperature. These regents are not as chemoselective as other reducing agents such as LiAlH(OBu-i)3 (87 13) and LiAlH(OCEt3)3 (94 6) at 0°.93... 

The sulfone moiety was reductively removed and the TBS ether was cleaved chemoselectively in the presence of a TPS ether to afford a primary alcohol (Scheme 13). The alcohol was transformed into the corresponding bromide that served as alkylating agent for the deprotonated ethyl 2-(di-ethylphosphono)propionate. Bromination and phosphonate alkylation were performed in a one-pot procedure [33]. The TPS protecting group was removed and the alcohol was then oxidized to afford the aldehyde 68 [42]. An intramolecular HWE reaction under Masamune-Roush conditions provided a macrocycle as a mixture of double bond isomers [43]. The ElZ isomers were separated after the reduction of the a, -unsaturated ester to the allylic alcohol 84. Deprotection of the tertiary alcohol and protection of the prima-... 

The parent 2(3/i/)-oxazolone moiety functions as a bifunctional leaving group when carboxyl groups are activated for acylations and condensations, similar to other five- and six-membered heterocycles such as imidazole, triazole, and 2-pyridinethiol. The excellent leaving ability of a 2(3//)-oxazolone moiety has led to the development of versatile reagents. Thus, 3-acyl- and 3-alkoxycarbonyl-2(3//)-oxazolones serve as ready-to-use -type agents for the regioselective and chemoselective N-protection of amino alcohols, amino phenols and polyamines. 

The relatively inexpensive and safe sodium borohydride (NaBH4) has been extensively used as a reducing agent because of its compatibility with protic solvents. Varma and coworkers reported a method for the expeditious reduction of aldehydes and ketones that used alumina-supported NaBH4 and proceeded in the solid state accelerated by microwave irradiation (Scheme 7) [50]. The chemoselectivity was apparent from the reduction of frarcs-cinnamaldehyde to afford cinnamyl alcohol. 

There are numerous reagents available for the chemoselective oxidation of polyfunctional alcohols. The most promising general type of oxidant must be that in which a mild, clean oxidizing agent e.g. t-buQ l hydroperoxide, bromine, air orN-methylmorpholineN-oxide) is used in conjunction with a reagent which will catalyze the desired selective oxidation. Mild, stoichiometric oxidants (such as periodinane). 

Potassium triisopropoxyborohydride, a mild selective reducing agent, rapidly converted ketones and aldehydes to the corresponding alcohols, while many common functional groups were inert.The reaction of potassium hydride with triphenylborane produced the triphenylborohydride, which is highly hindered and which exhibited excellent chemoselectivity between ketones. Cyclohexanone was reduced in preference to cyclopentanone (97 3) and 4-heptanone (99.4 0.6), while methyl ketones were more reactive than 4-heptanone (2-heptanone, 94 6 acetophenone, 97.8 2.2). 

The concept of in situ protection of the less hindered or more Lewis basic of two ketones to enable selective reduction of the usually less reactive groups has been successfully developed. The sterically hindered Lewis acid MAD (78) derived from BHT and trimethyl aluminum was used to coordinate preferentially to the less hindered ketone and DIBAL-H reduced the more hindered ketone that remained un-complexed. An approximate order of comparative reactivity for various classes of ketones has been established. The selectivity was improved by using the more hindered Lewis acid MAB (79) and/or di-bromoalane as the reducing agent. The discrimination between aromatic ketones is good but less successful between two dialkyl ketones. The chemoselectivity was demonstrated in the reduction of diketone (80) to keto alcohol (81) in 87% yield and excellent selectivity (equation 20). 

Another modification with trialkylaluminum compounds as the metalating agent (see Table 1) is reported to occur stereospecifically but without any diastereoselectivity7 (for a procedure see Vol. E 19b. p 209). Interestingly, this carbenoid source exhibits a rather different chemoselectivity compared to the diiodomethane/diethylzinc combination the preference for allylic alcohols with the latter reagent to react with.yyn stereoselectivity (see Section 1.6.1.5.1.2.) is not observed with the aluminum-based reagent. 

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