Carboxylic acids selective reduction

A potential liability associated with such reductive hydroacylations resides in the fact that only one acyl residue of the symmetric anhydride is incorporated into the coupling product. For more precious carboxylic acids, selective acyl transfer from mixed anhydrides is possible. Mixed anhydrides derived from pivalic acid are especially convenient, as they may be isolated chromato-graphically in most cases. In practice, mixed anhydrides of this type enable completely branch-selective hydroacylation with selective delivery of the aromatic and a,()-unsalurated acyl donors (Scheme 19). 

Acyloxyborane as an Activating Device for Carboxylic Acids . The reduction of carboxylic acids by borane is an important procedure in organic synthesis. The remarkable reactivity of borane towards carboxylic acids over esters is characteristic of this reagent. Such selectivity is rarely seen with other hydride reagents. 

Substituted benzaldehydes have been prepared from [ C] carbon dioxide and Grignard reagents via the corresponding carboxylic acids and reduction to the alcohol followed by selective oxidation (Halldin and Langstrom 1984a Kutzman et al. 1980). 

Isoquinoline can be reduced quantitatively over platinum in acidic media to a mixture of i j -decahydroisoquinoline [2744-08-3] and /n j -decahydroisoquinoline [2744-09-4] (32). Hydrogenation with platinum oxide in strong acid, but under mild conditions, selectively reduces the benzene ring and leads to a 90% yield of 5,6,7,8-tetrahydroisoquinoline [36556-06-6] (32,33). Sodium hydride, in dipolar aprotic solvents like hexamethylphosphoric triamide, reduces isoquinoline in quantitative yield to the sodium adduct [81045-34-3] (25) (152). The adduct reacts with acid chlorides or anhydrides to give N-acyl derivatives which are converted to 4-substituted 1,2-dihydroisoquinolines. Sodium borohydride and carboxylic acids combine to provide a one-step reduction—alkylation (35). Sodium cyanoborohydride reduces isoquinoline under similar conditions without N-alkylation to give... 

A new selective reduction of nitroalkenes into enamides has been carried out by a combina-m of iron powder, a carboxylic acid, and the corresponding anhydnde fEq 6 64)... 

Reversed micelles have also shown to be useful not only in bioconversions, but also in organic synthesis. Shield et al. (1986) have reviewed this subject and brought out its advantages in peptide synthesis, oxidation or reduction of steroids, selective oxidation of isomeric mixtures of aromatics, etc. In the oxidation of aromatic aldehydes to carboxylic acids with enzymes hosted in reverse micelles, the ortho substituted substrates react much more slowly than other isomers. 

A selective, mild, and facile reduction of aromatic and aliphatic carboxylic acid imida-zolides to primary alcohols is described in reference [33]. The reaction proceeds in water, water/dioxane or water/tetrahydrofuran solution at room temperature with 2-5 molar equivalents of NaBH4 in about 1 h. 

With ferrocenes, an alternative approach has been to attach the phosphorus moieties only to side chains. The WalPhos family (36) forms an eight-mem-bered chelate with the metal. Members of this family provide good selectivity and reactivity for the reductions of dehydroamino and itaconic acid derivatives as well as a,/ -unsaturated carboxylic acids [145, 156],... 

CHEC-II(1996) <1996CHEC-II(8)345> covered a range of reactions of substituents, including hydrolyses of esters to carboxylic acids and geminal dihalides to aldehydes, reduction of aldehydes and halogens directly attached to the ring, O-methylation with diazomethane, and reduction of nitroso compounds. A selection of reactions which have... 

Reduction of a., -unsaturated carbonyl compounds. Hydrosilanes, particularly (QH,)2SiH2, in the presence of Pd(0), and a Lewis acid, particularly ZnCl2, can effect selective conjugate reduction of unsaturated ketones, aldehydes, and carboxylic acid derivatives. Chloroform is the solvent of choice. In addition, 1 equiv. of water is required. Experiments with D,0 and (C6H,),SiD2 indicate that... 

In a related study, the oxidation-reduction sequence was carried out in the presence of an olefin (Scheme 21). Two products were formed. The major product resulted from the net reduction of the carboxylic acid to an aldehyde. The minor product resulted from trapping of the radical anion intermediate generated from the reduction reaction by the olefin. It should be noted that, in the absence of a trapping group, the acid can be selectively reduced to the aldehyde without any over-reduction. Although not in the scope of this review, this is a very useful transformation in its own right [35]. At this time, the yields of the cyclized products from the cyclization reaction of the radical anion with the olefin remain low. 

---