Aldehydes, aromatic hydrogenolysis

Aldimines derived from aromatic aldehydes suffered hydrogenolysis in hydrogenation over palladium at 117-120° at 20 atm and gave products in... 

Aldehydes and ketones are similar in their response to hydrogenation catalysis, and an ordering of catalyst activities usually applies to both functions. But the difference between aliphatic and aromatic carbonyls is marked, and preferred catalysts differ. In hydrogenation of aliphatic carbonyls, hydrogenolysis seldom occurs, unless special structural features are present, but with aryl carbonyls either reduction to the alcohol or loss of the hydroxy group can be achieved at will. 

Hydrogenation of a C=0 double bond followed by catalytic hydrogenolysis of the resulting OH group is an alternative method for the conversion of aromatic aldehydes and ketones to alkanes. Pd/C and Pt02 are the most often used catalysts.49-51 In this way, dimethyltetralone was hydrogenated-hydrogenolyzed under 60 psi H2 for 5 hours in MeOH-HCl with 10% Pd/C (Scheme 4.22).52... 

Reductive animation of aromatic aldehydes to give benzylamines is accomplished by heating the aldehyde and tritylamine with molecular sieves, followed by the addition of sodium cyanoborohydride. Catalytic hydrogenolysis of the products with palladium on charcoal yields the benzylamines (equation 56)167. 

In contrast to phenolic hydroxyl, benzylic hydroxyl is replaced by hydrogen very easily. In catalytic hydrogenation of aromatic aldehydes, ketones, acids and esters it is sometimes difficult to prevent the easy hydrogenolysis of the benzylic alcohols which result from the reduction of the above functions. A catalyst suitable for preventing hydrogenolysis of benzylic hydroxyl is platinized charcoal [28], Other catalysts, especially palladium on charcoal [619], palladium hydride [619], nickel [43], Raney nickel [619] and copper chromite [620], promote hydrogenolysis. In the case of chiral alcohols such as 2-phenyl-2-butanol hydrogenolysis took place with inversion over platinum and palladium, and with retention over Raney nickel (optical purities 59-66%) [619]. 

Hydrogen and a catalyst.2 0 The most common catalysts are platinum and ruthenium, but homogeneous catalysts have also been used.281 Before the discovery of the metal hydrides this was one of the most common ways of effecting this reduction, but it suffers from the fact that C=C, CssC, C=N and C=N bonds are more susceptible to attack than C=0 bonds.282 For aromatic aldehydes and ketones, reduction to the hydrocarbon (9-37) is a side reaction, stemming from hydrogenolysis of the alcohol initially produced (0-78). 

The condensation of an aldehyde, benzyl carbamate, and triphenyl phosphite, first described by Oleksyszyn et al., 25,26 affords a direct route to a-aminoalkylphosphonates 4 that are conveniently protected for subsequent reactions (Scheme 4). Since dealkylation of the quaternary phosphonium intermediate 3 is not possible in this case, formation of the pen-tavalent product 4 presumably involves activation of the solvent and formation of phenyl acetate. This method is useful for the synthesis of aliphatic and aromatic amino acid analogues. However, monomers with more elaborate side chains are often incompatible with the reaction conditions. The free amine can be liberated by treatment with HBr/AcOH or by hydrogenolysis after removal of the phenyl esters. The phosphonate moiety can be manipulated by ready exchange of the phenyl esters in alkaline MeOH and activation as described in Section 10.10.2.1.1. Related condensations with other trivalent phosphite derivatives have been reported. 27-30 ... 

Acid chlorides can be selectively hydrogenated in the presence of a catalyst (palladium deposited on a carrier, which is usually barium sulphate but is occasionally charcoal). The reaction, which involves the hydrogenolysis of the carbon-halogen bond, is known as the Rosenmund reduction and has been widely used for the synthesis of aromatic and heterocyclic aldehydes. 

In Fig. (12) keto ester (94) was selected as starting material. It was converted to the formyl derivative (95) which yielded a,P-unsaturated aldehyde (96) by treatment with DDQ. Michael addition of the sodium enolate of tert-butyl- isovalerylacetate to aldehyde (96) afforded the adduct (97) as a mixture of C-ll diastereomers. By fractional crystallization one of the adducts could be separated but for the synthetic purpose the mixture was not separated. Treatment of the adduct (97) with p-toluenesulfonic acid in glacial acetic acid caused t-butyl ester cleavage, decarboxylation and cyclodehydration leading the formation of tricyclic enedione (98) in 80% yield. This approach was previously utilized by Meyer in the synthesis of nimbiol [29], Treatment of (98) with pyridinium bromide perbromide, followed by hydrogenolysis with palladium and carbon caused aromatization of (98) leading the formation of the phenolic ester (99). 

Aromatic aldehydes and aromatic ketones also can be reduced to hydrocarbons in a completely different manner, namely via the so-called ionic hydrogenation followed by an ionic hydrogenolysis. This kind of reduction is possible only if it can proceed via resonance-stabilized cationic intermediates. This resonance stabilization is readily achieved in a benzylic position, and it is therefore advantageous to employ aromatic carbonyl compounds in this kind of reduction. The carboxonium ion A, formed... 

The production of hydrocarbons from aromatic alcohols is most readily explained by the hydrogenolysis of the alcohol, but an alternate possibility should be considered. The formation of an aldehyde and its subsequent decarbonylation under reaction conditions could lead to the hydrocarbon. Both toluene and 2-phenylethanol, the mixture of products secured from benzyl alcohol, may be regarded as derived from phenylacetaldehyde as an intermediate ... 

Aldehydes are easily hydrogenated to alcohols but ketones are more difficult to reduce because of steric hindrance. Hydrogenolysis is a problem with the catalytic reduction of carbonyls, particularly when linked to aromatic systems. Pd and H2 reduce alkenes faster than carbonyls. Metal catalyst Pt is commonly used for the reduction of carbonyls. For example, the Adams catalyst (Pt02) reduces 2-naphthaldehyde (6.31) to 6.32 in 80% when used with FeCls as a promoter. When excess of the promoter is used the product is 2-methylnaphthalene (6.33), which is also obtained by the reduction of 6.31 with Pd on BaS04 and H2. 

Since aliphatic aldehydes and ketones are not hydrogenated over palladium, this reaction provides a means of selectively removing an aromatic carbonyl group in the presence of an aliphatic aldehyde or ketone (Eqn. 18.10).32 The palladium catalyzed hydrogenolysis of aryl aldehydes and ketones is preferable to any of the chemical reduction procedures such as the Wolff-Kishner or Clemmenson reactions for the removal of an aryl carbonyl group. 

---