Diazo groups reductive removal

Aryldiazonium salts, usually obtained from arylamines, undergo replacement of the diazonium group with a variety of nucleophiles to provide advantageous methods for producing aryl halides, cyanides, phenols and arenes by reductive removal of the diazo group. Coupling reaction of aryldiazonium salts with phenols or arylamines give rise to the formation of azo dyes. 

The aldonyl chlorides can be prepared 32) by treatment of acetylated aldonic acids with PCU. These chlorides are used for the preparation of open-chain derivatives of aldoses by catalytic reduction with hydrogen in xylene solution 33), Keto acetates with one carbon atom more than the aldonyl chloride are formed by the action of diazomethane. Acetic acid removes the diazo group. In this manner, L-fructose was made from L-arabonic acid 34). 

The particular reaction described in Scheme 2 using dimethyl diazomalonate produces oxazoles 5 that bear a methoxy group at C-5. If desired, this substituent may be removed in some cases by reductive cleavage using LiB(Et)3H to give the 5-unsubstituted oxazoles 6.3.15 Alternatively, the 5-unsubstituted derivatives 6 may be obtained directly through the use of diazo formylacetate (2) in place of dimethyl diazomalonate (1).3 15 Some additional, representative examples of the use of 1 and 2 are shown below in the Table. 

The reaction is carried out at ambient temperature and nearly complete enantioselectivity (>99%) is observed for mono- and 1,1-disubstituted olefins with diazoacetates. With all copper catalysts, the transkis selectivities in the cyclopropanation of mono-substituted olefins are only moderate. The transkis ratio depends, in this case, mainly on the structure of the diazo ester rather than the chiral ligand (eq 2). It increases with the steric bulk of the ester group of the diazo compound. With the BHT ester, the more stable trans isomer is formed with selectivities up to >10 1. The steric hindrance usually prevents ester hydrolysis, but the BHT group can be removed by reduction with LiAlHj. The trans isomer is even enriched by the reduction procedure because the cis isomer reacts more slowly. 

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