Alcohols electrolytic reduction

Reduction. These hydroxybenzaldehydes can be reduced by catalytic hydrogenation over palladium or platinium to yield the corresponding hydroxybenzyl alcohols, but the electrolytic reduction in an alkaline medium gives the coupling product l,2-bis(4-hydroxyphenyl)ethane-l,2-diol in very good yield from 4-hydroxybenzaldehyde (49—51). 

Reduction of vanillin by means of platinum black in the presence of ferric chloride gives vanillin alcohol in excellent yields. In 1875, Tiemann reported the reduction of vanillin to vanillin alcohol by using sodium amalgam in water. The yields were poor, however, and there were a number of by-products. High yields of vanillin alcohol have been obtained by electrolytic reduction. 

The o-nitrobenzyl and p-nitrobenzyl ethers can b prepared and cleaved by many of the methods described for benzyl ethers. The p-nitrobenzyl ether is also prepared from an alcohol and p-nitrobenzyl alcohol (trifluoroacetic anhydride, 2,6-lutidine, CH2CI2, 67% yield). In addition, the o-nitrobenzyl ether can be cleaved by irradiation (320 nm, 10 min, quant, yield of carbohydrate " 280 nm, 95% yield of nucleotide ). The p-nitrobenzyl ether has been cleaved by electrolytic reduction (—1.1 V, DMF, R4N X, 60% yield) and by reduction with Na2S204 (pH 8-9, 80-95% yield). These ethers can also be cleaved oxidatively (DDQ or electrolysis) after reduction to the aniline derivative. ... 

The p-cyanobenzyl ether, prepared from an alcohol and the benzyl bromide in the presence of sodium, hydride (74% yield), can be cleaved by electrolytic reduction (—2.1 V, 71% yield). It is stable to electrolytic removal ( — 1.4 V) of a tritylone ether [i.e., 9-(9-phenyl-10-oxo)anthiyl ether]. ... 

The tritylone ether is used to protect primary hydroxyl groups in the presence of secondary hydroxyl groups. It is prepared by the reaction of an alcohol with 9-phenyl-9-hydroxyanthrone under acid catalysis (cat. TsOH, benzene, reflux, 55-95% yield).It can be cleaved under the harsh conditions of the WolfT-Kishner reduction (H2NNH2, NaOH, 200°, 88% yield), " and by electrolytic reduction (-1.4 V, LiBr, MeOH, 80-85% yield). It is stable to 10% HCl, 55 h. ... 

Tetrahydrostrychnine, CgjHggOgNg. HgO. This substance, also formed by the electrolytic reduction of strychnine, crystallises from alcohol in prisms, m.p. 202°, gives colour reactions of the strychnidine type, and yields both neutral and acid salts the hydrochloride, B. HCl, occurs in small needles readily soluble in water and the dihydriodide, B. 2HI. 2HjO, in pyramidal crystals. The base yields an amorphous nitrosoamine, the hydrochloride of which crystallises from warm water in lustrous, yellowish prisms. It also furnishes a crystalline monoacetyl derivative, and on heating with hydrochloric acid or phosphorus oxychloride is dehydrated to strychnidine. 

Electrolytic reduction, apparatus, 52, 23 Enol acetates, acylation of, 52,1 Enol esters, preparation, 52, 39 Epichlorohydrin, with boron trifluoride diethyl therate and dimethyl ether to give trimethyloxonium tetra-fluoroborate, 51,142 ESTERIFICATION OF HINDERED ALCOHOLS f-BUTYL p-TOLUATE,... 

V-Acylsaccharins prepared by treatment of the sodium salt of saccharin with acyl chlorides were reduced by 0.5 molar amounts of sodium bis(2-methoxyethoxy)aluminum hydride in benzene at 0-5° to give 63-80% yields of aliphatic, aromatic and unsaturated aldehydes [1108 Fair yields (45-58%) of some aliphatic aldehydes were obtained by electrolytic reduction of tertiary and even secondary amides in undivided cells fitted with platinum electrodes and filled with solutions of lithium chloride in methylamine. However, many secondary and especially primary amides gave 51-97% yields of alcohols under the same conditions [130]. 

Although acetone is used widely as an industrial solvent, nevertheless it has become the by-product of the acetone-butanol fermentation and there is always the fear of overproduction. There is thus a need for an extension of the industrial utilization of acetone. A possibility in this direction may be in its conversion into pinacol, the preparation of which has recently been improved by McHenry, Drum and O Connor. It is obtained together with isopropyl alcohol by electrolytic reduction of acetone under controlled conditions. Pinacol (LXVI) may be dehydrated to 2,3-dimethylbutadiene which can be converted into a synthetic rubber, or converted through pinacolone (LXVII) into neohexane... 

Numerous methods for the synthesis of salicyl alcohol exist. These involve the reduction of salicylaldehyde or of salicylic acid and its derivatives. The alcohol can be prepared in almost theoretical yield by the reduction of salicylaldehyde with sodium amalgam, sodium borohydride, or lithium aluminum hydride by catalytic hydrogenation over platinum black or Raney nickel or by hydrogenation over platinum and ferrous chloride in alcohol. The electrolytic reduction of salicylaldehyde in sodium bicarbonate solution at a mercury cathode with carbon dioxide passed into the mixture also yields saligenin. It is formed by the electrolytic reduction at lead electrodes of salicylic acids in aqueous alcoholic solution or sodium salicylate in the presence of boric acid and sodium sulfate. Salicylamide in aqueous alcohol solution acidified with acetic acid is reduced to salicyl alcohol by sodium amalgam in 63% yield. Salicyl alcohol forms along with -hydroxybenzyl alcohol by the action of formaldehyde on phenol in the presence of sodium hydroxide or calcium oxide. High yields of salicyl alcohol from phenol and formaldehyde in the presence of a molar equivalent of ether additives have been reported (60). Phenyl metaborate prepared from phenol and boric acid yields salicyl alcohol after treatment with formaldehyde and hydrolysis (61). 

Phenylacetamide has been obtained by a wide variety of reactions from benzyl cyanide with water at 250-260° 6 from benzyl cyanide with water and cadmium oxide at 240° 6 from benzyl cyanide with sulfuric acid 7 8 by saturation of an acetone solution of benzyl cyanide with potassium hydrosulfide 9 from benzyl cyanide with sodium peroxide 10 by electrolytic reduction of benzyl cyanide in sodium hydroxide 11 from ethyl phenyl-acetate with alcoholic 12 or aqueous 13 ammonia from phenyl-acetic acid with ammonium acetate 14 or urea 15 from diazoacetophenone with ammoniacal silver solution 16 from phenyl-acetic acid imino ether hydrochloride and water 17 from acetophenone with ammonium poly sulfide at 215° 18 from benzoic acid 19 and by heating the ammonium salt of phenyl-acetic acid.20... 

TAFEL REARRANGEMENT. Rearrangement of the carbon skeleton of substituted acetoacetic esters to hydrocarbons with the same number of carbon atoms by electrolytic reduction to a lead cathode in alcoholic sulfuric acid. 

Azoxybenzene has been prepared by reduction of nitrobenzene with alcoholic potassium hydroxide,1 with sodium amalgam,2 with hydrogen in the presence of lead oxide,3 with methyl alcohol and sodium hydroxide,4 with sodium methylate and methyl alcohol,5 and by electrolytic reduction 6 by oxidation of azobenzene with chromic anhydride 7 by treatment of /9-phenylhydroxylamine with alkaline potassium permanganate,8 with nitrobenzene,9 with mineral adds,10 and with mercury acetamide,11 and by oxidation of aniline with hydrogen peroxide,12 and with acid permanganate solution in the presence of formaldehyde.13 The procedure described above is a slight modification of one described in the literature.14... 

Di-o-nitrobenzyl diselenide, (N02.C6H4.CH2)2Se2, may be prepared by the usual methods, but not by electrolytic reduction of the corresponding selenosulphate. It crystallises from alcohol in yellow plates, M.pt. 103 5° C., which have similar properties to the meta- and para-compounds. 

Ketones are converted by electrolytic reduction into secondary alcohols or pinacones.2 A mercury cathode gives a good yield of the former class, but other cathodes give a mixture8 of the two compounds. 

Chloraniline.—Lob 4 has found that p- arid o-chloraniline are obtained by the electrolytic reduction of nitrobenzene suspended in fuming hydrochloric acid, nitrobenzene dissolved in alcoholic hydrochloric acid, and nitrobenzene dissolved in mixtures of hydrochloric and acetic acids. With hydrobromic acid the corresponding bromanilines are formed. 

Benzidine.—That nitrobenzene, by electrolytical reduction in acid solution, can directly yield benzidine, was first proved by Hiiussermann,1 who used sulphuric acid. Lob 2 later proved the same to be true for hydrochloric-, acetic- and formic-acid electrolytes. However, several reactions predominate in this direct acid reduction, which prevent the carrying out of the reaction up to hydrazobenzene, or the formation of benzidine. Phenylhydroxylamine may particularly be mentioned in this connection. In alcoholic-acid solution it is partly rearranged to amidophenol or its ethers, and partly reduced to aniline. Azoxybenzene, in acid solution, is the starting-point in the benzidine formation however, in this case, the combining velocity of nitrosobenzene and phenylhydroxylamine is not very great, so that the latter is to a very considerable extent subject to the more rapidly acting influence of the acid. 

Lob,3 convinced of the futility of thus being able to obtain a good yield of benzidine by a direct reduction of nitrobenzene in acid solution, sought to carry out the benzidine process by a careful realization of the conditions theoretically required— primary preparation of azoxy- or azobenzene in the best quantitative yields, i.e. in electrolytes, containing alkali or alkali-salt, then reducing these products in acid solution. Two processes thus resulted. In the first one the electrolytic reduction was carried out to azobenzene in alcoholic-alkaline solution, then the cathode solution was acidified with sulphuric acid, and the further reduction and molecular rearrangement combined in one operation. The second process, which was... 

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