Benzenoid compounds, reduction

The Birch reduction of a benzenoid compound involves the addition of two electrons and two protons to the ring. The order in which these additions occur has been the subject of both speculation and study. Several reviews of the subject are available and should be consulted for details. The present discussion is concerned with summarizing data that is relevant to understanding the reaction from the preparative point of view. For convenience, reaction intermediates are shown without indicating their solvation by liquid ammonia. This omission should not obscure the fact that such solvation is largely responsible for the occurrence of the Birch reduction. 

Reduction of aromatic compounds to dihydro derivatives by dissolved metals in liquid ammonia (Birch reduction) is one of the fundamental reactions in organic chemistry308. When benzene derivatives are subjected to this reduction, cyclohexa-1,4-dienes are formed. The 1,4-dienes obtained from the reduction isomerize to more useful 1,3-dienes under protic conditions. A number of syntheses of natural products have been devised where the Birch reduction of a benzenoid compound to a cyclohex-1,3-diene and converting this intermediate in Diels-Alder fasion to polycyclic products is involved (equation 186)308f h. 

Pyridines are reduced more easily than the corresponding benzenoid compounds. The greater the electron-withdrawing power of the substituents attached to the pyridine ring the easier is reduction by nucleophilic reducing agents. 

Fig. 30. The range of potentials in which the half-wave potentials of monosubsti-tuted and of most of the disubstituted benzenoid compounds can be expected, provided that the reduction of the substituted compound follows the same path as that for the parent compound of the particular reaction series. For pH 5—8 and unbuffered media...

The use of nickel-aluminum alloy in aqueous alkali for the reduction of organic compounds has been observed (60c) to bring about the displacement by hydrogen of methoxy, halogen, and sulfonic acid groups from several types of benzenoid compounds. Table III summarizes the... 

Reductive cleavage and hydrolysis of appropriate diisoxazolylmethanes leads to 1,3,5,7-tetraketones, which can be used in the biomimetic synthesis of benzenoid compounds, which are formed in nature by the polyketide pathway. Some of these results are summarized in Table VIII. The synthesis of compounds such as (97) has provided a synthetic equivalent of a 1,3,5,7,9-... 

Fig. 38. The ranges of half-wave potentials in which the reductions of monosubstituted benzenoid compounds at pH 5-8 and in unbuffered solution take place, provided that the reduction follows the same mechanism as that for the parent compound.

These compounds are less common than indole (benzo[ ]pyrrole). In the case of benzo[i>]furan the aromaticity of the heterocycle is weaker than in indole, and this ring is easily cleaved by reduction or oxidation. Electrophilic reagents tend to react with benzo[Z ]furan at C-2 in preference to C-3 (Scheme 7.21), reflecting the reduced ability of the heteroatom to stabilize the intermediate for 3-substitution. Attack in the heterocycle is often accompanied by substitution in the benzenoid ring. Nitration with nitric acid in acetic acid gives mainly 2-nitrobenzo[Z ]furan, plus the 4-, 6- and 7-isomers. When the reagent is in benzene maintained at 10 °C, both 3- and 2-nitro[ ]furans are formed in the ratio 4 1. Under Vilsmeier reaction conditions (see Section 6.1.2), benzo[Z ]furan gives 2-formylbenzo[6]furan in ca. 40% yield. 

Like benzenoid hydrocarbons, pyridine-like heterocycles give well-developed two-electron waves on reduction at the dropping mercury electrode. The latter are polarographically much more reducible than the former. This can be explained easily in terms of the HMO theory It is assumed (cf. ref. 3) that the value of the half-wave potential is determined essentially by the energy of the lowest free 7r-molecular orbital (LFMO) of the compound to be reduced, and for models of hetero analogues this quantity is always lower than that for the parent hydrocarbons. Introduction of an additional heteroatom into the molecule leads to a further enhancement of the ease of polarographic reducibility.95 On the other hand, anodic oxidation of the heterocyclic compounds is so much more difficult in comparison with benzenoid hydrocarbons that they are not oxidizable under the usual polarographic conditions. An explanation in terms of the HMO theory is obvious. 

Electrochemical studies are usually performed with compounds which are reactive at potentials within the potential window of the chosen medium i.e. a system is selected so that the compound can be reduced at potentials where the electrolyte, solvent and electrode are inert. The reactions described here are distinctive in that they occur at very negative potentials at the limit of the cathodic potential window . We have focused here on preparative reductions at mercury cathodes in media containing tetraalkylammonium (TAA+) electrolytes. Using these conditions the cathodic reduction of functional groups which are electroinactive within the accessible potential window has been achieved and several simple, but selective organic syntheses were performed. Quite a number of functional groups are reduced at this limit of the cathodic potential window . They include a variety of benzenoid aromatic compounds, heteroaromatics, alkynes, 1,3-dienes, certain alkyl halides, and aliphatic ketones. It seems likely that the list will be increased to include examples of other aliphatic functional groups. 

The electrochemical generation of hydrogen in aqueous acid or alkaline solutions reduces unactivated alkynes 46 a b). This process is similar to catalytic hydrogenation, however, and does not involve electron transfer to the substrate. The electrochemical generation of solvated electrons in amine solvents or HMPA has also been effective in reducing these compounds 29). The focus of this section, however, is the electrolysis of these difficult to reduce alkynes and alkenes at mercury cathodes with tetraalkyl-ammonium salts as electrolytes. Specific attention is also given to competitive reductions of benzenoid aromatics and alkynes or alkenes. 

The phenanthrenequinone oxime 54 was built in four steps from the two benzenoid precursors 52 and 53. Beckmann rearrangement of 54 furnished the cyano-acid 55. The latter, after reduction to the corresponding cyano-aldehyde, was homologated by Knoevenagel condensation with malonic acid to give, after reduction, hydrolysis and esterification, the diester 56. This compound underwent Dieckmann condensation, installing the seven-membered C-7 ketone 57 in 69% yield after hydrolysis and decarboxylation of the intermediate (3-ketoester. 

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