Chemoselective aldehyde

There are important issues relating to chemoselectivity (aldehydes or alcohols may be the products and alkene isomerisation is a competing side reaction, which must be reduced to a minimum) and regioselectivity (linear aldehyde is much preferred over branched)... 

Chemoselectivity (aldehyde predominating over alcohol) High Low High... 

The reaction is highly chemoselective aldehydes and ketones possessing functional groups, such as carbon-carbon double bonds, or bromo, nitro, amide, and ester groups, are reduced selectively to the corresponding alcohols (eqs 5 and 6)7 ... 

The oxidation of terminal alkenes with an EWG in alcohols or ethylene glycol affords acetals of aldehydes chemoselectively. Acrylonitrile is converted into l,3-dioxolan-2-ylacetonitrile (69) in ethylene glycol and to 3,3-dimetho.xy-propionitrile (70) in methanol[28j. 3,3-Dimethoxypropionitrile (70) is produced commercially in MeOH from acrylonitrile by use of methyl nitrite (71) as a unique leoxidant of Pd(0). Methyl nitrite (71) is regenerated by the oxidation of NO with oxygen in MeOH. Methyl nitrite is a gas, which can be separated easily from water formed in the oxidation[3]. 

Sodium cyanoborohydride is remarkably chemoselective. Reduction of aldehydes and ketones are, unlike those with NaBH pH-dependent, and practical reduction rates are achieved at pH 3 to 4. At pH 5—7, imines (>C=N—) are reduced more rapidly than carbonyls. This reactivity permits reductive amination of aldehydes and ketones under very mild conditions (42). 

The imidazolidine was prepared from an aldehyde with A/,N -dimethyl-1,2-eth-ylenediamine (benzene, heat, 78% yield) and cleaved with Mel (Et20 HjO, 92% yield). Derivatization is chemoselective for aldehydes. The imidazolidine is stable to BuLi and LDA. The diphenylimidazolidine has been prepared analogously and can be cleaved with aqueous HCl. ... 

Allyl bromide, Sb(OEt)3, 80°, 2-6 h, 85-98% yield. This method is chemoselective for aldehydes in the presence of ketones. 

Nal, CeCl3 7H20, CH3CN, rt, 0.5-21 h, 84-96% yield. Chemoselective cleavage of ketone derivatives is observed in the presence of aldehyde derivatives, and enone ketals are cleaved in the presence of simple ketone ketals. 

HSCH2CH2SH, FeCb-Si02, CH2CI2, < 1 min-7 h."" Montmorillonite Clay can also be used as a support medium for the ferric ion (75-98% yield ). In this case, the reaction is chemoselective for aldehydes."" ... 

This chemoselectivity stands in contrast to that of 2,6-disubstituted pyridines. For example, 2,6-dimethylpyridine 35 was reacted with hydrogen peroxide and acetic anhydride to produce the expected acetoxy derivative 36. A second iteration of the previous reaction conditions did not afford an aldehyde, as in the previous example, but 2,6-bis-acetoxy derivative 37. 

The combination of thionation by Lawesson s reagent [98] of oxoenamino-ketones 96 with normal electron-demand Diels-Alder reaction of conjugated aldehydes allows a variety of thiopyrans 97 to be synthesized by a regio-selective and chemoselective one-pot methodology [99] (Equation 2.28). Thionation occurred at the more electrophilic ketonic carbonyl group. O O... 

This looks at first sight like a formidable problem of chemoselectivity, but changing the oxidation level to an aldehyde (25) gives a simple 1,3-diX disconnection to available aldehyde (26). The ester would have done as well. 

Smaller aldehydes form cyclic acetal-type oligomers readily in aqueous conditions.60 Diols and polyols also form cyclic acetals with various aldehydes readily in water, which has been applied in the extraction of polyhydroxy compounds from dilute aqueous solutions.61 E in water was found to be an efficient catalyst for chemoselective protection of aliphatic and aromatic aldehydes with HSCH2CH2OH to give 1,3-oxathiolane acetals under mild conditions (Eq. 5.7).62... 

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