Heteroaromatic imines, reduction

Scheme 3 Electrochemical reduction (n-doping) of n-conjugated heteroaromatic polymers. Effect of the imine group...

The enantioselective hydrogenation of olefins, ketones and imines still represents an important topic and various highly enantioselective processes based on chiral Rh, Ru or Ir complexes have been reported. However, most of these catalysts failed to give satisfactory results in the asymmetric hydrogenation of aromatic and heteroaromatic compounds and examples of efficient catalysts are rare. This is especially the case for the partial reduction of quinoline derivatives which provide 1,2,3,4-tetrahydroquinolines, important synthetic intermediates in the preparation of pharmaceutical and agrochemical products. Additionally, many alkaloid natural products consist of this stmctural key element. 

Heteroaromatic N-imines and IV-aminoazonium salts show a variety of reactivities, depending on the nature of the heteroaromatic ring and the substituents on the imino or amino nitrogen. The most important types of the reactions are (i) reactions with electrophiles at the imino or amino nitrogen, (ii) reactions with nucleophiles on the heteroaromatic ring, (iii) 1,3-dipolar cycloaddition, (in) 671-electrocyclic reaction of 1,5-dipoles (mainly thermal reaction), (n) 47t-electrocyclic reaction (mainly photochemical reaction), and (vi) N—N bond cleavage (by thermolysis, photolysis, oxidation, and reduction). 

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