Carboxylic acids, reaction with borane

Oxidation of trialkyl borates and of trialkoxyboroxines. Trialkyl borates, B(0R)3, prepared by reaction of primary and secondary alcohols with borane-dimethyl sulfide, are oxidized by PCC to aldehydes and ketones in good yield. This indirect oxidation of alcohols does not involve formation of water, which could be detrimental in some cases. Of even greater interest, carboxylic acids can be converted into aldehydes by reaction with borane-dimethyl sulfide to form a tri-alkoxyboroxine followed by oxidation with PCC (equation I). 

Acyloxy)dialkylboranes are best prepared from carboxylic acids with tri-alkylboranes. " Other methods involve reactions of halodiorganobo-ranes with carboxylic acids or with acetic anhydride. Alternative syntheses from acetic anhydride using dialkyl(alkylthio)boranes or dialkylamino compounds have also been described. ... 

Triple bonds can be monohydroborated to give vinylic boranes, which can be reduced with carboxylic acids to cis alkenes or oxidized and hydrolyzed to aldehydes or ketones. Terminal alkynes give aldehydes by this method, in contrast to the mercuric or acid-catalyzed addition of water discussed at 15-4. However, terminal alkynes give vinylic boranes (and hence aldehydes) only when treated with a hindered borane such as 47, 48, or catecholborane (p. 798)," or with BHBr2—SMe2. The reaction between terminal alkynes and BH3 produces 1,1-... 

One hydrogen of the borane is wasted through reaction with the acidic hydrogen of the carboxyl group to give hydrogen. An example is... 

Direct reduction of aldehydes with 2,3-dimethyl-2-butylborane proceeds rapidly and gives the corresponding alcohol. Nonetheless, reduction of carboxylic acids with the same borane (Section 18-3C) proceeds slowly and gives high yields of aldehydes. Explain why the reaction of RC02H with the 2,3-dimethyl-2-butylborane produces RCHO instead of RCH2OH. 

The characteristic feature of the aforementioned oxazaborolidine catalyst system consists of a-sulfonamide carboxylic acid ligand for boron reagent, where the five-membered ring system seems to be the major structural feature for the active catalyst. Accordingly, tartaric acid-derived chiral (acyloxy)borane (CAB) complexes can also catalyze the asymmetric Diels-Alder reaction of a,P-unsaturated aldehydes with a high level of asymmetric induction [10] (Eq. 8A.4). Similarly, a chiral tartrate-derived dioxaborolidine has been introduced as a catalyst for enantioselective Diels-Alder reaction of 2-bromoacrolein [11] (Eq. 8A.5). 

Acyloxyboranes. Yamamoto et a/.1 have used the known reactivity of borane with carboxylic acids to activate acrylic acids for Diels-Alder reactions. Thus addition of BH3-THF to acrylic acids at 0° furnishes an acyloxyborane formulated as 1, which undergoes cycloaddition (equations I and II). The reaction proceeds satisfactorily even when borane is used in catalytic amounts. A chiral acyloxyborane, BL, prepared from a tartaric acid derivative, can serve as a catalyst for an asymmetric Diels-Alder reaction (equation III). 

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