Halides heteroaromatic, reduction

Nickel-bpy and nickel-pyridine catalytic systems have been applied to numerous electroreductive reactions,202 such as synthesis of ketones by heterocoupling of acyl and benzyl halides,210,213 addition of aryl bromides to activated alkenes,212,214 synthesis of conjugated dienes, unsaturated esters, ketones, and nitriles by homo- and cross-coupling involving alkenyl halides,215 reductive polymerization of aromatic and heteroaromatic dibromides,216-221 or cleavage of the C-0 bond in allyl ethers.222... 

Electrochemical studies are usually performed with compounds which are reactive at potentials within the potential window of the chosen medium i.e. a system is selected so that the compound can be reduced at potentials where the electrolyte, solvent and electrode are inert. The reactions described here are distinctive in that they occur at very negative potentials at the limit of the cathodic potential window . We have focused here on preparative reductions at mercury cathodes in media containing tetraalkylammonium (TAA+) electrolytes. Using these conditions the cathodic reduction of functional groups which are electroinactive within the accessible potential window has been achieved and several simple, but selective organic syntheses were performed. Quite a number of functional groups are reduced at this limit of the cathodic potential window . They include a variety of benzenoid aromatic compounds, heteroaromatics, alkynes, 1,3-dienes, certain alkyl halides, and aliphatic ketones. It seems likely that the list will be increased to include examples of other aliphatic functional groups. 

Decarboxylation of benzoates in the presence of an aryl halide (20, 33, 211) affords the biphenyl substitution products in yields of up to 50% if the medium is an iV-heteroaromatic solvent. The solvent must be dry to avoid reductive dehalogenation (54). If the solvent is dry diglyme or xylene, an ester can be isolated in high yield (54). 

The indirect reduction of many organic substrates, in particular alkyl and aryl halides, by means of radical anions of aromatic and heteroaromatic compounds has been the subject of numerous papers over the last 25 years [98-121]. Many issues have been addressed, ranging from the exploration of synthetic aspects to quantitative descriptions of the kinetics involved. Saveant et al. coined the expression redox catalysis for an indirect reduction, in which the homogeneous reaction is a pure electron-transfer reaction with no chemical modification of the mediator (i.e., no ligand transfer, hydrogen abstraction, or hydride shift reactions). In the following we will consider such reactions and derive the relevant kinetic equations to show the kind of kinetic information that can be extracted. 

The addition of a catalytic amount of Cp2TiCl2 dramatically increases the yield of the hydroacylated ketone formed in the hydroacylation of 1-alkenes with heteroaromatic aldehydes by using Wilkinson s complex and 2-amino-3-picoline as co-catalysts.1264 Cp2TiCl2 catalyzes the reduction of aryl halides by sodium borohydride. The reaction scope and mechanism are solvent dependent.1265... 

As described above, the initial [Pd]—R complex can be formed by the transfer of R from another organometallic RM. Compounds of mercury, boron or tin have often been used. Alternatively an aryl, heteroaromatic or vinyl halide is added to PdL, generated in situ from PdL or by reduction of L PdX. In the second method a base such as a tertiary amine is also required to react with the hydrogen halide which is produced. 

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