Alcohols general hydride reductions

General Hydride Reductions of Aldehydes and Ketones to Alcohols... 

Mono MOM derivatives of diols can be prepared from the ortho esters by diiso-butylaluminum hydride reduction (46-98% yield). In general, the most hindered alcohol is protected. ... 

Tertiary Alkyl Alcohols. Tertiary alkyl alcohols generally undergo facile reduction when treated with acids in the presence of organosilicon hydrides.127,136 This comparative ease of reduction reflects the enhanced stability and ease of formation of tertiary alkyl carbenium ions compared with primary and secondary carbenium ions. Thus, treatment of 1-methylcyclohexanol with mixtures of triethylsilane and aluminum chloride in dichloromethane produces near quantitative yields of methylcyclohexane with or without added hydrogen chloride in as little as 30 minutes at room temperature, in contrast to the more vigorous conditions needed for the reduction of the secondary alcohol cyclohex-anol.136... 

Reagents of choice for reduction of epoxides to alcohols are hydrides and complex hydrides. A general rule of regioselectivity is that the nucleophilic complex hydrides such as lithium aluminum hydride approach the oxide from the less hindered side [511, 653], thus giving more substituted alcohols. In contrast, hydrides of electrophilic nature such as alanes (prepared in situ from lithium aluminum hydride and aluminum halides) [653, 654, 655] or boranes, especially in the presence of boron trifluoride, open the ring in the opposite direction and give predominantly less substituted alcohols [656, 657,658]. As far as stereoselectivity is concerned, lithium aluminum hydride yields trans products [511] whereas electrophilic hydrides predominantly cis products... 

Precursor y-halogeno alcohols are frequently prepared by the classic sequence of addition of hydrogen halide to a,/3-unsaturated aldehydes, ketones, acids or esters, followed by Grignard reaction or hydride reduction. Recently a novel and general synthesis of 3-methoxyoxetanes from 3-phenylseleno-2-propenal was reported. This method comprises a sequence of Grignard addition to the aldehyde function, treatment with two equivalents of MCPBA, and then reaction with methanolic sodium hydroxide (equation 78) (80JOC4063). 

Chemoselective catalytic reduction of a,/3 unsaturated ketones to allylic alcohols is a challenging problem since, but a few exceptions [1-3], this reaction generally proceeds with formation of saturated ketones or saturated alcohols [4]. This reduction indeed is best carried out with stoicheiometric hydrides [4] but even in this case overreduction products are often obtained [5]. Recently, we reported in a preliminary communication [6] the unprecedented observation that a,/3 unsaturated ketones are reduced to the corresponding allylic alcohols by hydrogen transfer from propan-2-ol over MgO as catalyst according to the following scheme ... 

In general, the reduction of aromatic carbonyl compounds to the corresponding alcohols by dissolving metals is not a particularly valuable synthetic procedure. Better yields and chemoselectivity are usually obtained using complex metal hydrides. 

Reductions of cyclic ketones by dissolving metals are frequently highly stereoselective and these reductions have been used to obtain secondary alcohols which are difficult or impossible to prepare by metal hydride reduction. In terms of yield, the best results are usually obtained either by reductions with alkali metals (commonly Li) in liquid NH3 in the presence of proton donors or with active metals in an alcohol. Although a number of explanations have been advanced for the stereoselectivity of these reductions, they are all rationalizations with dubious predictive value." There are, however, a number of empirical generalizations which are based on a considerable body of experimental data, specifically ... 

Alanes and boranes are initially electrophilic rather than nucleophilic, and coordinate onto free electron pairs in the molecule prior to hydride delivery. The chemistry of metal hydrides has been extensively reviewed, as has the reduction of nitrogen heterocycles with complex metal hydrides. Generally, NBH reductions, carried out in alcohols, produce tetrahydropyridines, whilst LAH generates mainly di-hydropyridines. 

Bioreduction of ketones often leads to (he creation of an asymmetric center and. thereby, two possible stereoisomeric alcohols. " For example, reduction of acetophenone by a soluble rabbit kidney reductase leads to the enantiomeric alcohols (5)(-)- and (R)( + )-mcthylphen lcarbinol. with the (.V)(-) isomer predominating (3 1 ratio). The preferential formation of one stereoisomer over the other is termed product stereoselectivity in drug metabolism. " Mechanistically, ketone reduction involves a "hydride" transfer from the reduced nicotinamide moiety of the cofactor NADPH or NADH to (he carbonyl carbon atom of the ketone. It is generally agreed that this step proceeds with considerable stereoselectivity." Consequently, it is not surprising to find many reports of xenobiotic ketones that are i uced prefer-emi ly to a predominant stereoisomer. Often, ketone reduction yields dcohol metabolites that arc pharmacologically active. 

The Meerwein-Ponndorf-Verley reduction of carbonyl compounds and the Oppenauer oxidation of alcohols, together denoted as MPVO reactions, are considered to be highly selective reactions. For instance, C=C double bonds are not attacked. In MPV reductions a secondary alcohol is the reductant whereas in Oppenauer oxidations a ketone is the oxidant. It is generally accepted that MPVO reactions proceed via a complex in which both the carbonyl and the alcohol are coordinated to a Lewis acid metal ion after which a hydride transfer from the alcohol to the carbonyl group occurs (Fig. 1) [1]. Usually, metal ec-alkoxides are used as homogeneous catalysts in reductions and metal t-butoxides in oxidations [1]. 

Allylie acetates are usually prepared by esterification from allylic alcohols. However, the corresponding alcohols are often only accessible by the fairly expensive hydride reduction of carbonyl compounds. Consequently, direct allylic functionalization of easily available olefins has been intensively investigated. Host of these reactions involve peroxides or a variety of metal salts.However, serious drawbacks of these reactions, (e.g. toxicity of some metals, stoichiometric reaction conditions, or non-generality) may be responsible for their infrequent use for the construction of allylic alcohols or acetates. 

These transformations serve to illustrate the principles involved in asymmetric synthesis. The requirements for efficient synthetic utilization are (a) an easily available optically active reagent that can carry out the desired transformation, and (b) reaction conditions that lead to a high percentage of enantiomeric preference. In general, it is also desirable to be able to recover the optically active reagent. The Diels-Alder example is a case where this can be accomplished. Hydrolysis or lithium aluminum hydride reduction gives the product and also returns the original alcohol, which can be reused. Similarly, in the synthesis of dialkylacetic acids, the optically active amino alcohol can be recovered by hydrolysis. 

---