Hydrogen halides complex hydrides

The hydrogenolyaia of cyclopropane rings (C—C bond cleavage) has been described on p, 105. In syntheses of complex molecules reductive cleavage of alcohols, epoxides, and enol ethers of 5-keto esters are the most important examples, and some selectivity rules will be given. Primary alcohols are converted into tosylates much faster than secondary alcohols. The tosylate group is substituted by hydrogen upon treatment with LiAlH (W. Zorbach, 1961). Epoxides are also easily opened by LiAlH. The hydride ion attacks the less hindered carbon atom of the epoxide (H.B. Henhest, 1956). The reduction of sterically hindered enol ethers of 9-keto esters with lithium in ammonia leads to the a,/S-unsaturated ester and subsequently to the saturated ester in reasonable yields (R.M. Coates, 1970). Tributyltin hydride reduces halides to hydrocarbons stereoselectively in a free-radical chain reaction (L.W. Menapace, 1964) and reacts only slowly with C 0 and C—C double bonds (W.T. Brady, 1970 H.G. Kuivila, 1968). 

Benzylic halides are reduced very easily using complex hydrides. In a-chloroethylbenzene lithium aluminium deuteride replaced the benzylic chlorine by deuterium with inversion of configuration (optical purity 79%) [537]. Borane replaced chlorine and bromine in chloro- and bromodiphenylme-thane, chlorine in chlorotriphenylmethane and bromine in benzyl bromide by hydrogen in 90-96% yields. Benzyl chloride, however, was not reduced [5iSj. Benzylic chlorine and bromine in a jy/n-triazine derivative were hydrogeno-lyzed by sodium iodide in acetic acid in 55% and 89% yields, respectively [5i9]. 

As p-hydride elimination is reversible, hydropalladation with the opposite regiochemistry provides a mechanism for forming regioisomers of the alkene. This allows the most stable alkene that is accessible by the hydropalladation-dehydropalladation sequence to dominate. The only restriction is that all of these processes are syn. The migration can be prevented by the addition of bases like silver carbonate, which effectively removes the hydrogen halide from the palladium complex as soon as it is formed. This synthesis of a complex trans dihydrofuran involves the Heck reaction followed by alkene isomerization and then a Heck reaction without migration to preserve the stereochemistry. 

In the absence of strongly rr-bonding ligands such as tertiary phosphines, complex hydrides, e.g., [A1HJ and [BHJ react with Cu, Ag and Au halides to form metal-hydrogen compounds, usually of low thermal stability. Uncomplexed CuH is unstable, even at — 80 C. 

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