Ammonium formate reduction

Aldehydes and ketones may be converted into the corresponding primary amines by reduction of their oximes or hydrazones (p. 93). A method of more limited application, known as the Leuckart Reaction, consists of heating the carbonyl compound with ammonium formate, whereby the formyLamino derivative is formed, and can be readily hydrolysed by acids to the amine. Thus acetophenone gives the i-phenylethylformamide, which without isolation can be hydrolysed to i-phenylethylamine. 

Formic acid is a good reducing agent in the presence of Pd on carbon as a catalyst. Aromatic nitro compounds are reduced to aniline with formic acid[100]. Selective reduction of one nitro group in 2,4-dinitrotoluene (112) with triethylammonium formate is possible[101]. o-Nitroacetophenone (113) is first reduced to o-aminoacetophenone, then to o-ethylaniline when an excess of formate is used[102]. Ammonium and potassium formate are also used for the reduction of aliphatic and aromatic nitro compounds. Pd on carbon is a good catalyst[103,104]. NaBH4 is also used for the Pd-catalyzed reduction of nitro compounds 105]. However, the ,/)-unsaturated nitroalkene 114 is partially reduced to the oxime 115 with ammonium formate[106]... 

Diphenylisoinclole (29) can be prepared by a modified Leuckart reaction of o-dibenzoylbenzene (46), using an ammonium salt of formic acid the process is essentially a reductive alkylation of ammonia, accompanied by cyclization, and leads to 29 in 44% yield with ammonium formate, and 47 in 28% yield with methylammonium formate. 1,3-Diphenylisoindole. (29) can also be obtained in good yield by the reaction of 46 with 1,1-dimethylhydrazine. ... 

Hydrogen gas can be replaced by ammonium formate for the reduction of nitro compounds to amines. The ammonium formate method is efficient, and the rapid workup procedure by simple filtratkin makes it widely used for converting the NO to the NH. ° For example, ct-nitro esters are reduced to ct-amino esters in excellent yields on treatment v/ith HCO NH and PdAZ in methanol. ... 

The reduction of y-nitroketone acetals as in Eq. 6.50 v/ith ammonium formate in the presence of Pd/C gives the correspondmg amines in good yields. However, the reduction ofy-nitro ketones are reduced to cyclic nitrones fEq. 6.51. This reduction is far superior to the classical method using Zn/T4HlCl due to improved yield and simple workup. 

The reduction of fi-nitro alcohols v/ith ammonium formate in the presence of Pd/C also proceeds v/ith retendon of their configuradons fEq. 6.53. ... 

The Leuckart-Wallach reaction is the oldest method of reductive amination of carbonyl compounds. It makes use of formamide, formic acid or ammonium formate at high temperature. The final product is a formamide derivative, which can be converted to an amine by reduction or hydrolysis. The method has been applied to the preparation of 1,2-diamines with a norbornane framework, which are interesting rigid analogues of 1,2-diaminocyclohexanes. As a matter of fact, starting from N-acetyl-2-oxo-l-norbornylamine 222, the diamide 223 was obtained with excellent diastereoselectivity and then converted to the M-methyl-N -ethyl derivative 224 by reduction with borane [ 104] (Scheme 34). On the other hand, when the reac-... 

Transfer hydrogenation is also useful for the reduction of the azido group. The azide was treated 10% Pd/C and ammonium formate in MeOH under an inert atmosphere for 2.5 hours.603... 

A reductive amination/cyclization strategy was used by Surya Prakash Rao and coworkers to synthesize the annulated tricyclic compounds 10-93 [34]. These authors employed the microwave irradiation of a cis/trans- mixture of 1,5,9-triketone 10-92 with an excess of ammonium formate for 1 min in 87 % yield (Scheme 10.23). 

Reaction of phenyl vinyl ketone with cyclopentanone under thermal conditions resulted in a diastereomeric mixture of 1,5,9-triketones 374 via a double Michael reaction. Treatment of this mixture with ammonium formate in polyethyleneglycol-200 under microwave irradiation conditions led to the very fast and efficient formation of a 2 1 diastereomeric mixture of cyclopental flquinolizidines 375 and 376 <2002T2189>. When this reductive amination-cyclization procedure was carried out starting from the purified /ra r-isomer of 374, the result was identical to that obtained from the cis-trans mixture, showing the operation of thermodynamic control (Scheme 86). 

In MW-assisted chemistry reduction reactions were the last to appear on the scene the use of ammonium formate and catalytic transfer hydrogenation were initial examples [23 b]. 

Using terminal propargylic formates, allenes were prepared much more cleanly by Pd-catalyzed intramolecular reduction [46, 47]. The reduction process can be seen as a kind of decomposition reaction and therefore no additional reductant (ammonium formate) is required. In the Pd-catalyzed self-reduction of 28, the terminal allene 29 was formed in 86% yield with 99% selectivity and only a trace amount of alkyne 30 was detected (Scheme 3.15). 

Triethylammonium formate-formic acid complex, (HC02NHEtj)2(HC02H)3, is used in a one-pot reductive aldol condensation of Meldrum s acid with aldehydes to produce the alkylated derivative [51]. Although feasible, the process has not been adapted for use with a quaternary ammonium formate salt. 

Reductive alkylation can also be accomplished by heating carbonyl compounds at 150-250° with 4-5 mol of ammonium formate, formamide, or formates or formamides prepared by heating primary on secondary amines with formic acid at 180-190° (Leuckart reaction) [322]. An excess of85-90% formic acid is frequently used. Formyl derivatives of primary or secondary amines are sometimes obtained as products and have to be hydrolyzed to the corres-... 

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