Aluminum alkyne hydrogenation

The use of stronger acid conditions provides somewhat better synthetic yields of alkanes from alkynes. A useful method consists of treatment of the substrate with a combination of triethylsilane, aluminum chloride, and excess hydrogen chloride in dichloromethane.146 Thus, treatment of phenylacetylene with 5 equivalents of triethylsilane and 0.2 equivalents of aluminum chloride in this way at room temperature yields 50% of ethylbenzene after 1.5 hours. Diphenylacetylene gives a 50% yield of bibenzyl when treated with 97 equivalents of triethylsilane and 2.7 equivalents of aluminum chloride after 2.8 hours. Even 1-hexyne gives a mixture of 44% n -hexane and 7% methylpentane of undisclosed structure when treated with 10 equivalents of triethylsilane and 0.5 equivalent of aluminum chloride for 0.5 hour.146... 

Most of the substrates for these isomerizations have a tetrahedral carbon with at least one hydrogen substituent between the carbonyl group and the alkyne. Due to the comparable high acidity of this C-H bond neighboring the carbonyl group, already a weak base such as a carbonate, a tertiary amine or aluminum oxide can deprotonate this position and a subsequent protonation at the other end of the pro-pargyl/allenyl anion delivers the allene. 

An alternate route to formation of alkyl monolayers is via Lewis acid catalyzed reactions of alkenes with the hydrogen terminated surface. In this approach, a catalyst such as ethyl aluminum dichloride is used to mediate the hydrosilylation reaction of an alkene (or alkyne), resulting in the same type of product as in the case of the photochemical or thermal reactions. This type of reaction is well known based on molecular organosilane chemistry and has also been used successfully to alkylate porous silicon [31]. Although this route has been shown to work on H/Si(lll), the resulting monolayers are found to have lower coverages than those achieved using the photochemical or thermal approach [29], Another concern with this approach is the possibility of trace metal residues from the catalyst that could adversely affect the electronic properties of these surfaces (even when present at levels below the detection limit of most common surface analysis techniques). 

The potential use of non-solvated lanthanide cyclopentadienyl hydride complexes as catalysts in alkene C-H bond activation, hydrogenation of alkynes led to synthesis of aluminum hydride organo lanthanide complexes. Examples of such complexes with polymeric structure and chain structure have been characterized [251]. 

Several of the trialkylaluminum and alkylaluminum halides and hydrides mentioned above are commercially available. Alkynyl, alkenyl, cyclopentadienyl, and aryl derivatives are, in general, not commercially available and must be synthesized for laboratory use. Alkynyl derivatives can be prepared by salt metathesis, as in the reaction of Et2AlCl with NaC=CEt to give Et2AlC=CEt. The acidity of terminal alkynes is sufficient for preparation of alkynyl aluminum compounds by alkane or hydrogen elimination upon reaction with a trialkylaluminum or an aluminum hydride (equation 17), respectively. TriaUcynyl aluminum compounds are typically isolated as Lewis base adducts to stabilize them against otherwise facile polymerization. Alkenyl compounds of aluminnm have similarly been prepared. 

Reductive dimerization of alkenes and alkynes can be achieved with various catalysts in the presence of dihydrogen or other hydrogen donors, such as tetrahydroborates or / -H-eliminat-ing aluminum alkyls. 

Hydrogen fluoride (HF) is often used as a catalyst for alkenes, since there is less tar (fewer decomposition and polymeric by-products) and the volatile catalyst is easily removed. Both ferric chloride (FeCl3) and BF3 are common catalysts for alkene-aromatic coupling. Typical alkyne catalysts are aluminum chloride, gallium trichloride (GaCl3), BF3, and sulfuric acid. Reaction of a mixture of xylenes with a trace amount of BF3 in liquid HF gave the thermodynamic mixture 18% ortho, 60% meta, and 22% para but treatment with excess BF3 gave virtually 100% m-xylene. 07b,117... 

Substituents such as alkene units, alkyne units, and carbonyls can be reduced by catalytic hydrogenation. Lithium aluminum hydride reduces many heteroatom substituents, including nitrile and acid derivatives. 

Substituents such as alkene units, alkyne units, and carbonyls can be reduced by catalytic hydrogenation. Lithium aluminum hydride reduces many heteroatom substituents, including nitrile and acid derivatives 56, 57, 104, 105, 106, 107, 108, 109. Polycyclic aromatic compounds such as naphthalene, anthracene, and phenanthrene give electrophilic aromatic substitution reactions. The major product is determined by the number of resonance-stabilized intermediates for attack at a given carbon and the number of fully aromatic rings (intact rings) in the resonance structures 59, 60, 61, 62, 63, 64, 65, 85, 104, 106, 107, 108,109,110,113,114,118. 

The carboxyl group is one of the organic functional groups most resistant to reduction. It is not affected by catalytic hydrogenation under conditions that easily reduce aldehydes and ketones to alcohols and that reduce alkenes and alkynes to alkanes. The most common reagent for the reduction of carboxylic acids to primary alcohols is the very powerful reducing agent, lithium aluminum hydride (Section 16.11A). 

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