Aldehydes reducing agents

LiAKOBujaH. A selective reducing agent for converting RCOCl to aldehydes and reducing steroid ketones. See aluminium hydride. 

The alkali metal tetrahydridoborates are salts those of sodium and potassium are stable in aqueous solution, but yield hydrogen in the presence of a catalyst. They are excellent reducing agents, reducing for example ion(III) to iron(II). and silver ions to the metal their reducing power is used in organic chemistry, for example to reduce aldehydes to alcohols. They can undergo metathetic reactions to produce other borohydrides, for example... 

Many aldehydes and ketones can be reduced directly by Clenimemen s method, in which the aldehyde or ketone is boiled with dilute hydrochloric acid and amalgamated zinc. />-Methylacetophenone (or methyl />-tolyl ketone) is reduced under these conditions to />-ethyltoluene. An excess of the reducing agent is employed in order to pre ent the formation of unsaturated hydrocarbons. 

Formation of silver mirror or precipitate of silver indicates reducing agent. (This is often a more sensitive test than I (a) above, and some compounds reduce ammoniacal silver nitrate but are without effect on Fehling s solution.) Given by aldehydes and chloral hydrate formates, lactates and tartrates reducing sugars benzoquinone many amines uric acid. 

Aldehydes are easily oxidized to carboxylic acids under conditions of ozonide hydroly SIS When one wishes to isolate the aldehyde itself a reducing agent such as zinc is included during the hydrolysis step Zinc reduces the ozonide and reacts with any oxi dants present (excess ozone and hydrogen peroxide) to prevent them from oxidizing any aldehyde formed An alternative more modem technique follows ozone treatment of the alkene m methanol with reduction by dimethyl sulfide (CH3SCH3)... 

For most laboratory scale reductions of aldehydes and ketones catalytic hydro genation has been replaced by methods based on metal hydride reducing agents The two most common reagents are sodium borohydride and lithium aluminum hydride... 

Many mercury compounds are labile and easily decomposed by light, heat, and reducing agents. In the presence of organic compounds of weak reducing activity, such as amines (qv), aldehydes (qv), and ketones (qv), compounds of lower oxidation state and mercury metal are often formed. Only a few mercury compounds, eg, mercuric bromide/77< 5 7-/7, mercurous chloride, mercuric s A ide[1344-48-5] and mercurous iodide [15385-57-6] are volatile and capable of purification by sublimation. This innate lack of stabiUty in mercury compounds makes the recovery of mercury from various wastes that accumulate with the production of compounds of economic and commercial importance relatively easy (see Recycling). 

The aromatic primary and secondary stibines are readily oxidized by air, but they are considerably more stable than their aHphatic counterparts. Diphenylstibine is a powerful reducing agent, reacting with many acids to Hberate hydrogen (79). It has also been used for the selective reduction of aldehydes and ketones to the corresponding alcohols (80). At low temperatures, diphenylstibine undergoes an addition reaction with ketene (81) ... 

Potassium borohydride is similar in properties and reactions to sodium borohydride, and can similarly be used as a reducing agent for removing aldehydes, ketones and organic peroxides. It is non-hygroscopic and can be used in water, ethanol, methanol or water-alcohol mixtures, provided some alkali is added to minimise decomposition, but it is somewhat less soluble than sodium borohydride in most solvents. For example, the solubility of potassium borohydride in water at 25° is 19g per lOOmL of water (as compared to sodium borohydride, 55g). 

Reduction to alcohols (Section 15.2) Aldehydes are reduced to primary alcohols, and ketones are reduced to secondary alcohols by a variety of reducing agents. Catalytic hydrogenation over a metal catalyst and reduction with sodium borohydride or lithium aluminum hydride are general methods. 

Reductive amination (Section 22.10) Reaction of ammonia or an amine with an aldehyde or a ketone in the presence of a reducing agent is an effective method for the preparation of primary, secondary, or tertiary amines. The reducing agent may be either hydrogen in the presence of a metal catalyst or sodium cyanoborohy-dride. R, R, and R" may be either alkyl or aryl. 

By application of the Clemmensen reduction,aldehydes and ketones 1 can be converted into the corresponding hydrocarbons 2. As the reducing agent zinc amalgam, together with concentrated hydrochloric acid or gaseous hydrogen chloride, is used. 

Mino and Kaizerman [12] established that certain. ceric salts such as the nitrate and sulphate form very effective redox systems in the presence of organic reducing agents such as alcohols, thiols, glycols, aldehyde, and amines. Duke and coworkers [14,15] suggested the formation of an intermediate complex between the substrate and ceric ion, which subsequently is disproportionate to a free radical species. Evidence of complex formation between Ce(IV) and cellulose has been studied by several investigators [16-19]. Using alcohol the reaction can be written as follows ... 

Low -molecular-weight ozonides are explosive and are theretore not isolated. Instead, the ozonide is immediately treated with a reducing agent such as zinc metal in acetic acid to convert it to carbonyl compounds. The net result of the ozonolysis/reduction sequence is that the C=C bond is cleaved and oxygen becomes doubly bonded to each of the original alkene carbons. If an alkene with a letrasubstituted double bond is ozonized, two ketone fragments result if an alkene with a trisubstituted double bond is ozonized, one ketone and one aldehyde result and so on. 

Lithium aluminum hydride, LiAIH4/ is another reducing agent often used for reduction of aldehydes and ketones. A grayish powder that is soluble in ether and tetrabydrofuran, LiAlH4 is much more reactive than NaBH4 but also more dangerous. It reacts violently with water and decomposes explosively when heated above 120 °C. 

Reaction with water to yield a carboxylic acid Reaction with an alcohol to yield an ester Reaction with ammonia or an amine to yield an amide Reaction with a hydride reducing agent to yield an aldehyde or an alcohol... 

The aldehyde intermediate can be isolated if 1 equivalent of diisobutvl-aluminum hydride (D1BAH) is used as the reducing agent instead of LiAlH4. The reaction has to be carried out at -78 °C to avoid further reduction to the alcohol. Such partial reductions of carboxylic acid derivatives to aldehydes also occur in numerous biological pathways, although the substrate is either a thioester or acyl phosphate rather than an ester. 

Amines can be synthesized in a single step by treatment of an aldehyde or ketone with ammonia or an amine in the presence of a reducing agent, a process called reductive amination. For example, amphetamine, a central nervous system stimulant, is prepared commercially by reductive amination of phenyl-2-propanone with ammonia, using hydrogen gas over a nickel catalyst as the reducing agent. 

Reductive animation (Sections 24.6, 26.3) A method for preparing an amine by reaction of an aldehyde or ketone with ammonia and a reducing agent. 

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