Aldehydes, reductive alkylation alkenes, reagents

Methods of synthesis for carboxylic acids include (1) oxidation of alkyl-benzenes, (2) oxidative cleavage of alkenes, (3) oxidation of primary alcohols or aldehydes, (4) hydrolysis of nitriles, and (5) reaction of Grignard reagents with CO2 (carboxylation). General reactions of carboxylic acids include (1) loss of the acidic proton, (2) nucleophilic acyl substitution at the carbonyl group, (3) substitution on the a carbon, and (4) reduction. 

Cyanoborohydride and its modified reagents have been used for reductive dehalogenations. Thus, the combination of sodium or tetrabutylammonium cyanoborohydride, sodium or potassium 9-cyano-9-hydro-9-borabicyclo[3.3.1]nonanate [9-BBNCN] (2) or polymeric cyanoborane (3) in HMPA furnishes an efficient and mild system for the reduction of alkyl halides. The reagents are selective in that other functional groups, including ester, carboxylic acid, amide, cyano, alkene, nitro, sulfone, ketone, aldehyde and epoxide, are essentially inert under the reduction conditions thus, the reduction procedure is attractive for synthetic schemes which demand minimum damage to sensitive portions of the molecule. 

The reaction of a chiral alkene with borane in the proper stoichiometry may afford alkyl boranes R BH2 or dialkyl boranes R BH, where R is a chiral ligand. Attempts to achieve highly selective reductions of ketones using such reagents have met with little success, however. Trialkyl boranes R3B were first reported to reduce aldehydes and ketones (under forcing conditions) in 1966 by Mikhailov [50]. Mechanistic studies (summarized in ref. [46]) showed that there are two limiting mechanisms for the reduction of a carbonyl compound by a trialkylborane, as shown in Scheme 7.4 a pericyclic process reminiscent of the Meerwein-Pondorf-Verley reaction (Scheme 7.4a), and a two step process that involves dehydro-... 

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