Barton-McCombie deoxygenation reaction, group

The Barton-McCombie deoxygenation reaction was invented for use in the manipulation of aminoglycoside antibiotics. It has become a popular method because of the mild conditions employed. Radical reactions have advantages over ionic reactions for carbohydrate chemistry. In this context, there is little neighboring group interference in cationic reactions and little elimination compared with normal nucleophilic displacement reactions. 

Barton-McCombie deoxygenation is not always stereoselective the diastereo-meric ratios strongly depends on the nature of the protecting groups and of the ester moiety. However, in 2-C-trifluoromethyl-2-deoxyfuranose, the a compound is the major product of the reaction, due to steric hindrance of this a side. In 3-C-trifluoromethyl-3-deoxyfuranose, deoxygenation by tributyltin hydride yields only the a product, if it is performed with oxalate instead of thiocarbonate. Another possibility to obtain this selectivity is to perform the reaction with 1,2,5,6-di-O-isopropylidene-a-D-glucofuranose (Figure 6.34). ... 

In the Barton-McCombie radical deoxygenation reaction the hydroxyl group of an alcohol is replaced with a hydrogen atom. Even hindered secondary and tertiary alcohols may be deoxygenated by this method. In a typical procedure the alcohol is first converted to a thioxoester derivative, which is then exposed to tri-n-butyltin hydride in refluxing toluene. 

Chatgilialoglu studied (MesSijsGeH as a new radical hydrogen donor, and found that reduction of chlorides, bromides, and iodides, deoxygenation of secondary alcohols via a thiono ester (Barton-McCombie reaction), deamination of primary amines via isocyanides, removal of PhSe group, and replacement of a tertiary nitro group by hydrogen were extremely effective (Scheme 11.15) [31]. 

Radical Chemistry. Treatment of secondary alcohols with 1 equiv of TCDI affords an imidazole-1-thiocarbonyl derivative (imidazolide), which can be reduced to a CH2 unit under Tri-n-butylstannane (TBTH) radical chain reaction conditions. - The deoxygenation of secondary alcohols by way of an imidazolide or other thiocarbonyl derivative is called the Barton-McCombie reaction (eq 4). Since imidazolide formation (TCDI, reflux, 65 °C) and the subsequent radical chemistry are done under neutral or near-neutral conditions, the overall reduction is tolerant of the presence of many sorts of functional groups. Furthermore, the low solvation requirements of radical species permits deoxygenation in sterically congested environments (eq 5). ... 

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