Aldehydes, reduction, transfer

The NAD- and NADP-dependent dehydrogenases catalyze at least six different types of reactions simple hydride transfer, deamination of an amino acid to form an a-keto acid, oxidation of /3-hydroxy acids followed by decarboxylation of the /3-keto acid intermediate, oxidation of aldehydes, reduction of isolated double bonds, and the oxidation of carbon-nitrogen bonds (as with dihydrofolate reductase). 

The water-soluble ligand (TPPTS) was discussed earlier with regard to aldehyde reduction [17]. Similarly, in ketone transfer hydrogenation, high yields are obtained for a variety of substrates with the ability for efficient catalyst recycling at no expense of activity or selectivity (Fig. 15.10). 

List was the first to explore this possibility, examining the Hantzsch ester mediated reduction of a,P-unsaturated aldehydes [209], Using 20 mol% of the binaphthyl derived phosphonate salt of morpholine (153) in dioxane at 50 °C, a series of P-aryl a,P-unsaturated aldehydes underwent transfer hydrogenation with Hantzsch ester 154 with excellent levels of absolute stereocontrol (96-98% ee) (Scheme 63). The method was also applied to the aliphatic substrates ( )-citral and famesal to give the mono-reduced products in 90% and 92% ee, respectively. Significantly, in line with many of the chiral secondary amine catalysed transformations described above the reactions follow a simple and practical procedure without the need for exclusion of moisture and air. 

They proposed a polymerization scheme closely related to other well-known chemical reactions of metal alkoxide with carbonyl compounds (20). In Scheme 2, complex [A] is converted to [B] by hydride ion transfer from the alkoxyl group to the carbon atom of aldehyde (Meerwein-Ponndorf reduction). Addition of one molecule of monomer to the growing chain requires transfer of the alkoxide anion to the carbonyl group to form a new alkoxide [C]. Repetition of these two consecutive processes, i.e., coordination of aldehyde and transfer of the alkoxide anion, constitutes the chain propagation step. 

Reduction then proceeds by successive transfers of hydride ion, H e, from aluminum to carbon. The first such transfer reduces the acid salt to the oxidation level of the aldehyde reduction does not stop at this point, however, but continues rapidly to the alcohol. Insufficient information is available to permit very specific structures to be written for the intermediates in the lithium aluminum hydride reduction of carboxylic acids. However, the product is a complex aluminum alkoxide, from which the alcohol is freed by hydrolysis ... 

Aryl-2-alkynols In a process mechanistically analogous to the Meerwein-Ponndorf-Verley reduction, transfer of arylethynyl group to certain aldehydes (such as chloral and pentafluorobenzaldehyde) can be achieved via the trialkoxyaluminum species derived from 4-aryl-2-methyl-3-butyn-2-ols and the aluminum reagent [or 12,2 -bipheny lenedioxy-(/-butoxy)aluminum]. 

Unfortunately, most of the aldehyde reduction experiments were run in unbuffered solutions. Exceptions are the hydrogen-transfer reductions [117, 120], where the HCOONa/NaHCO, mixture has a fairly constant pH of 8 and the hydrogena-... 

Note that this mechanism postulates that the iimer sphere water molecule is displaced by substrate during ternary complex formation, and that the substrate oxygen atom occupies the site vacated by the water molecule. This arrangement provides a facile pathway for proton donation to, or abstraction from, the substrate as demanded by the overall course of the reaction. This mechanism accommodates most, but not all, of the steady-state and transient-state kinetic information on pH effects (see, for example. Ref. 65, 67, 68, 85). Both the pre-steady-state kinetic experiments of Shore et al. [85) on the time-course of proton release during alcohol oxidation, and the transient-state kinetic experiments of Dunn (68) on the time-course of proton uptake during aldehyde reduction are in qualitative agreement with this proposal. Both studies show that proton transfer occurs in a step which is different from the oxidoreduction step. Shore et al. (85)... 

The dialkylboranes and dialkylaluminums are also of value when partial reduction of an ester or amide is desired. The intermediates formed by the first hydride transfer are stable under the conditions of the reduction. Subsequent hydrolysis then provides the carbonyl compound at the aldehyde reduction stage. This method using diisobutylaluminum hydride has been particularly useful for reduction of esters to... 

Geary LM, Leung JC, Krische MJ (2012) Ruthenium-catalyzed reductive couphng of 1,3-enynes and aldehydes via transfer hydrogenation onrf-diastereoselective carbonyl propargylation. Chem Eur J 18 16823-16827... 

Although the nitro group plays a crucial role in most of these SrnI reactions, reactions of this type have synthetic application beyond the area of nitro compounds. The nitromethyl groups can be converted to other functional groups, including aldehydes and carboxylic acids.Nitro groups at tertiary positions can be reductively removed by reaction with the methanethiol anion.This reaction also appears to be of the electron-transfer type, with the methanethiolate anion acting as the electron donor ... 

From a study of the decompositions of several rhodium(II) carboxylates, Kitchen and Bear [1111] conclude that in alkanoates (e.g. acetates) the a-carbon—H bond is weakest and that, on reaction, this proton is transferred to an oxygen atom of another carboxylate group. Reduction of the metal ion is followed by decomposition of the a-lactone to CO and an aldehyde which, in turn, can further reduce metal ions and also protonate two carboxyl groups. Thus reaction yields the metal and an acid as products. In aromatic carboxylates (e.g. benzoates), the bond between the carboxyl group and the aromatic ring is the weakest. The phenyl radical formed on rupture of this linkage is capable of proton abstraction from water so that no acid product is given and the solid product is an oxide. 

Amides are very weak nucleophiles, far too weak to attack alkyl halides, so they must first be converted to their conjugate bases. By this method, unsubstituted amides can be converted to N-substituted, or N-substituted to N,N-disubstituted, amides. Esters of sulfuric or sulfonic acids can also be substrates. Tertiary substrates give elimination. O-Alkylation is at times a side reaction. Both amides and sulfonamides have been alkylated under phase-transfer conditions. Lactams can be alkylated using similar procedures. Ethyl pyroglutamate (5-carboethoxy 2-pyrrolidinone) and related lactams were converted to N-alkyl derivatives via treatment with NaH (short contact time) followed by addition of the halide. 2-Pyrrolidinone derivatives can be alkylated using a similar procedure. Lactams can be reductively alkylated using aldehydes under catalytic hydrogenation... 

Diols (pinacols) can be synthesized by reduction of aldehydes and ketones with active metals such as sodium, magnesium, or aluminum. Aromatic ketones give better yields than aliphatic ones. The use of a Mg—Mgl2 mixture has been called the Gomberg-Bachmann pinacol synthesis. As with a number of other reactions involving sodium, there is a direct electron transfer here, converting the ketone or aldehyde to a ketyl, which dimerizes. 

Moreover, an electron transfer chain could be reconstituted in vitro that is able to oxidize aldehydes to carboxylic acids with concomitant reduction of protons and net production of dihydrogen (213, 243). The first enzyme in this chain is an aldehyde oxidoreductase (AOR), a homodimer (100 kDa) containing one Mo cofactor (MOD) and two [2Fe—2S] centers per subunit (199). The enzyme catalytic cycle can be regenerated by transferring electrons to flavodoxin, an FMN-con-taining protein of 16 kDa (and afterwards to a multiheme cytochrome and then to hydrogenase) ... 

An unusual reaction was been observed in the reaction of old yellow enzyme with a,(3-unsat-urated ketones. A dismutation took place under aerobic or anaerobic conditions, with the formation from cyclohex-l-keto-2-ene of the corresponding phenol and cyclohexanone, and an analogous reaction from representative cyclodec-3-keto-4-enes—putatively by hydride-ion transfer (Vaz et al. 1995). Reduction of the double bond in a,p-unsaturated ketones has been observed, and the enone reductases from Saccharomyces cerevisiae have been purified and characterized. They are able to carry out reduction of the C=C bonds in aliphatic aldehydes and ketones, and ring double bonds in cyclohexenones (Wanner and Tressel 1998). Reductions of steroid l,4-diene-3-ones can be mediated by the related old yellow enzyme and pentaerythritol tetranitrate reductase, for example, androsta-A -3,17-dione to androsta-A -3,17-dione (Vaz etal. 1995) and prednisone to pregna-A -17a, 20-diol-3,ll,20-trione (Barna et al. 2001) respectively. 

The catalytic hydrosi(ly)lations of other C=X functional groups (X = O, NR) constitute alternative routes to the reduction of aldehydes, ketones, imines and other carbonyl compounds (Scheme 2.9), circumventing the use of molecular hydrogen or occasionally harsh transfer hydrogenation conditions. 

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