Benzyl selective reduction

The chemistry of indium metal is the subject of current investigation, especially since the reactions induced by it can be performed in aqueous solution.15 The selective reductions of ethyl 4-nitrobenzoate (entry 1), 2-nitrobenzyl alcohol (entry 2), l-bromo-4-nitrobenzene (entry 3), 4-nitrocinnamyl alcohol (entry 4), 4-nitrobenzonitrile (entry 5), 4-nitrobenzamide (entry 6), 4-nitroanisole (entry 7), and 2-nitrofluorenone (entry 8) with indium metal in the presence of ammonium chloride using aqueous ethanol were performed and the corresponding amines were produced in good yield. These results indicate a useful selectivity in the reduction procedure. For example, ester, nitrile, bromo, amide, benzylic ketone, benzylic alcohol, aromatic ether, and unsaturated bonds remained unaffected during this transformation. Many of the previous methods produce a mixture of compounds. Other metals like zinc, tin, and iron usually require acid-catalysts for the activation process, with resultant problems of waste disposal. 

Reduction of benzyl ethers. Benzyl ethers are cleaved in high yield by calcium (2 equiv.) in liquid ammonia. By proper control of the amount of metal, selective reduction of benzyl ethers is possible in the presence of a triple bond or a t-butyldimethylsilyl ether group. However, there is little selectivity between benzyl ethers and thiophenyl, epoxide, or keto groups in this reduction. 

Antimony(III) trichloride can be used as a catalytic mediator in the electroreduction of carbonyl compounds. The advantage of the procedure is illustrated by the selective reduction of acetophenones (497), leading to the corresponding benzylic alcohols (498) (Scheme 173) [575]. The electroreduction is performed in an EtOH/BuOH(l/1.5)-aq.HCl-(Pt/Pb) system in the presence... 

The known property of diorganyl tellurides of reducing metallic salts, applied to tita-nium(IV) chloride, generates a titanium(III) species which is a useful reagent for some selective reductions. By this method benzaldehyde is reduced to dihydrobenzoin, and benzyl to benzoin, and successively to desoxybenzoin. ... 

Conjugate addition to 1 proceeded across the open face of the bicyclic system to give an enolate, condensation of which with the enantiomerically-pure aldehyde 8 gave the enone 9. Conjugate reduction of the enone also removed the benzyl ether, to give the alcohol. Conversion of the alcohol to the azide gave 10. Ozonolysis followed by selective reduction then gave 2. 

Selective reduction of t-alkyl halides. The ate complex of B-butyl-9-BBN with n-BuLi selectively reduces tertiary alkyl halides to hydrocarbons in high yield without effect on primary or secondary halides. It does not reduce aryl or vinyl halfdes, but does reduce benzyl and allyl halides. The reduction involves a carbonium ion, and thus can proceed with Wagner-Meerwein rearrangements in certain systems. 

Selective reduction of halides.1 Thecomplexl reduces tertiary halides to alkanes without attack on primary or secondary halides. It is more selective than organotin hydrides. Benzylic and allyl halides are also reduced easily. The reagent reduces a mixture of the halides 2 mainly to trims-3 thus, a partial inversion oftonfiguration is... 

Keck showed that protection of the (1-hydroxyl group in (5-hydroxy ketones as tert-butyldimethylsilyl and benzyl ethers shut off reduction and starting material was recovered. This underlines the importance of pre-coordination of Sm(II) to the free hydroxyl in the directed reduction.13 The mm -selective reduction does, however, tolerate methyl, MOM, MTM and MEM ethers, presumably as these small ether groups still allow coordination to Sm(II).14 Keck pointed out that care should be taken when working with different systems as selectivities can be very substrate dependent.13 Flowers has also shown that the diastereoselectivity of the reduction can be altered by changing the reaction conditions through the use of other solvents or reaction protocols.15,16... 

The selective reduction of nitroarenes containing benzyl-protected phenolic groups without concomitant hydrogenolysis has also been achieved using hydrazine hydrate and Raney nickel. This procedure avoids strongly acidic conditions. The reaction is selective and a variety of (V-benzyl- and chloro-sub-stituted nitroarenes are reduced to the corresponding anilines without dehalogenation or debenzylation. 

Heteroaromatic cations undergo reduction when treated with 1,4-dihydronicotinamide. An early study showed that the 10-methylacridinium ion (87) was rapidly reduced in a redox reaction to the 9,10-dihydro adduct by 1,4-dihydronicotinamides (M Scheme 18). A variety of systems including py-ridines, isoquinolines, quinolines and phenanthridines have been studied using this and related procedures. The selective reduction of pyridinium and quinolinium salts with 1-benzyl-1,2-dihydro-isonicotinamide (89) has been achieved. The selective conversion to the thermodynamically more stable 1,4-dihydro species (90 Scheme 18) is rationalized by the reversibility in the formation of the kinetic products (i.e. the 1,2-adducts) in the presence of pyridinium ions. In the pyridinium case 1,6-di-hydro adducts were also observed in some cases. Reactivity in such systems is sometimes hindered due to hydration of the dihydropyridine system. This is particularly so in aqueous systems designed to replicate biological activity. Dihydroazines derived from isoquinolines and 3,5-disubstituted pyridines have been reported to overcome some of these difficulties. ... 

OH free Here, for all the three monosaccharides, a derivative with the 4-OH free can be obtained from the 4,6-O-benzylidene derivative through regioselective reductive opening. Formation of the 4,6-acetal with consecutive 2,3-protection (acetylation, benzoylation, benzylation) and reductive opening using various reagents yields the desired compounds. In mannosides, the selective formation of the 4,6-6>-acetal is not trivial, but can be accomplished with a 50 to 70% yield. 

S-Benzyl-y-butyrolactones (44) for which convenient preparative procedures are available, and improved techniques for their a-alkylation and a-hydroxyalkylation, provide the most common synthetic route for these lignan sub-classes (39). The Stobbe condensation (40) of aryl aldehyde with dimethyl succinate (Scheme 9) leads to the half-ester (42) which can be catalytically hydrogenated at atmospheric pressure to give the dihydro half-ester (43). Selective reduction of the potassium salt of the latter can be effectively achieved by calcium borohydride (41)... 

Reductions. Aldehydes, aromatic acids and their esters are reduced by PMHS in the presence of Bu NF. Aluminum chloride is also an effective catalyst in the selective reductive cleavage of 2-phenyl-1,3-dioxanes and dioxolanes (e.g., 4-O-benzyl derivatives from the 4,6-benzylidene sugars).- ... 

Tab. 4.1 Selective reduction of benzyl ethers containing a variety of functional groups with...

With a more complicated substrate 48, Suzuki et al. [34] removed the benzyl protecting group by use of calcium in ammonia, in which part of the diol product underwent partial saturation of the triple bond (Scheme 4.13). Hydrogenation of this mixture gave the fully saturated diol 49 in 87% yield. A thorough study was performed on selective reduction of benzyloxy alkyne 50 to give a mixture of hydroxy alkyne 51 and hydroxy trans-alkene 52 in 81-93% overall yields (Scheme 4.14) [12]. The study involved the use of different quantities of calcium and lithium in liquid ammonia. 

LAH or AlHj-amine complexes reduce alkyl bromides and iodides as well as benzyl chloride and bromide [FSl]. They leave other chlorides unchanged, thus allowing the selective reduction of 2.1 to the corresponding chloroalcohol [MP2]. 

---