Hydride donors reduction

Acylation of Hydride Donors Reduction of Carboxylic Acid Derivatives to Aldehydes... 

A traditional method for such reductions involves the use of a reducing metal such as zinc or tin in acidic solution. Examples are the procedures for preparing l,2,3,4-tetrahydrocarbazole[l] or ethyl 2,3-dihydroindole-2-carbox-ylate[2] (Entry 3, Table 15.1), Reduction can also be carried out with acid-stable hydride donors such as acetoxyborane[4] or NaBHjCN in TFA[5] or HOAc[6]. Borane is an effective reductant of the indole ring when it can complex with a dialkylamino substituent in such a way that it can be delivered intramolecularly[7]. Both NaBH -HOAc and NaBHjCN-HOAc can lead to N-ethylation as well as reduction[8]. This reaction can be prevented by the use of NaBHjCN with temperature control. At 20"C only reduction occurs, but if the temperature is raised to 50°C N-ethylation occurs[9]. Silanes cun also be used as hydride donors under acidic conditions[10]. Even indoles with EW substituents, such as ethyl indole-2-carboxylate, can be reduced[ll,l2]. 

Sodium borohydride and lithium aluminum hydride react with carbonyl compounds in much the same way that Grignard reagents do except that they function as hydride donors rather than as carbanion sources Figure 15 2 outlines the general mechanism for the sodium borohydride reduction of an aldehyde or ketone (R2C=0) Two points are especially important about this process... 

Reductive cleavage of oxiranes to alcohols by lithium aluminum hydride is an important reaction (64HC(19-1)199), but the most powerful hydride donor for this purpose is lithium triethylborohydride (73JA8486). 

The hydride-donor class of reductants has not yet been successfully paired with enantioselective catalysts. However, a number of chiral reagents that are used in stoichiometric quantity can effect enantioselective reduction of acetophenone and other prochiral ketones. One class of reagents consists of derivatives of LiAlH4 in which some of die hydrides have been replaced by chiral ligands. Section C of Scheme 2.13 shows some examples where chiral diols or amino alcohols have been introduced. Another type of reagent represented in Scheme 2.13 is chiral trialkylborohydrides. Chiral boranes are quite readily available (see Section 4.9 in Part B) and easily converted to borohydrides. 

Bicyclo[3.3.1]nonan-9-one is another ketone that exhibits interesting stereoselectivity. Reduction by hydride donors is preferentially syn to electron-attracting substituents at C-5 (X = EWG in the structure shown below) and anti to electron-releasing substituents (X = ERG below). These effects are observed even for differentially substituted phenyl... 

It should be noted that compounds of this type " have been of interest as models for hydride transfer reductions in biological systems. Van Bergen and Kellogg state clearly their hope, if not expectation, that when ions such as H, Zn , Mg, etc. are com-plexed in the vicinity of the donor, beneficial catalytic effects might be forthcoming . ... 

Enantiomerically pure /J-keto sulfoxides are prepared easily via condensation of a-lithiosulfinyl carbanions with esters. Reduction of the carbonyl group in such /J-keto sulfoxides leads to diastereomeric /J-hydroxysulfoxides. The major recent advance in this area has been the discovery that non-chelating hydride donors (e.g., diisobutylaluminium hydride, DIBAL) tend to form one /J-hydroxysulfoxide while chelating hydride donors [e.g., lithium aluminium hydride (LAH), or DIBAL in the presence of divalent zinc ions] tend to produce the diastereomeric /J-hydroxysulfoxide. The level of diastereoselectivity is often very high. For example, enantiomerically pure /J-ketosulfoxide 32 is reduced by LAH in diethyl ether to give mainly the (RR)-diastereomer whereas DIBAL produces exclusively the (.S R)-diastereomer (equation 30)53-69. A second example is shown in... 

In the same study, several ligands variously functional on both the nitrogen and the sulfur atoms have been developed, providing a new class of cyclo-hexylamino sulfide ligands derived from cyclohexene oxide. All the ligands depicted in Scheme 9.7 were evaluated for the Ir-catalysed hydride-transfer reduction of acetophenone in the presence of i-PrOH as the hydrogen donor, providing enantioselectivities of up to 70% ee. 

A-methoxy-A-methyl amides.87 LiAlH4 and DiBAlH have both been used as the hydride donor. The partial reduction is again the result of the stability of the initial reduction product. The A-methoxy substituent leads to a chelated structure that is stable until acid hydrolysis occurs during workup. 

With less hindered hydride donors, particularly NaBH4 and LiAlH4, confor-mationally biased cyclohexanones give predominantly the equatorial alcohol, which is normally the more stable of the two isomers. However, hydride reductions are exothermic reactions with low activation energies. The TS should resemble starting ketone, so product stability should not control the stereoselectivity. A major factor in the preference for the equatorial isomer is the torsional strain that develops in the formation of the axial alcohol.117... 

A large amount of data has been accumulated on the stereoselectivity of reduction of cyclic ketones.120 Table 5.4 compares the stereoselectivity of reduction of several ketones by hydride donors of increasing steric bulk. The trends in the table illustrate... 

Enantioselective 1,4-reduction of enones can be done using a copper-BINAP catalyst in conjunction with silicon hydride donors.158 Polymethylhydrosilane (PMHS) is one reductants that is used. 

Reduction of Other Functional Groups by Hydride Donors... 

Scheme 5.7 illustrates these and other applications of the hydride donors. Entries 1 and 2 are examples of reduction of alkyl halides, whereas Entry 3 shows removal of an aromatic halogen. Entries 4 to 6 are sulfonate displacements, with the last example using a copper hydride reagent. Entry 7 is an epoxide ring opening. Entries 8 and 9 illustrate the difference in ease of reduction of alkynes with and without hydroxy participation. 

The reactions proceed with an e.e. of about 80% when the enantiopure ligand is used. Similar conditions using poly[oxy(methylsilylene)] (PMHS) as the hydride donor lead to reduction of aryl ketones with up to 98% e.e.188... 

There are also reactions in which hydride is transferred from carbon. The carbon-hydrogen bond has little intrinsic tendency to act as a hydride donor, so especially favorable circumstances are required to promote this reactivity. Frequently these reactions proceed through a cyclic TS in which a new C—H bond is formed simultaneously with the C-H cleavage. Hydride transfer is facilitated by high electron density at the carbon atom. Aluminum alkoxides catalyze transfer of hydride from an alcohol to a ketone. This is generally an equilibrium process and the reaction can be driven to completion if the ketone is removed from the system, by, e.g., distillation, in a process known as the Meerwein-Pondorff-Verley reduction,189 The reverse reaction in which the ketone is used in excess is called the Oppenauer oxidation. 

Reduction of Ketones and Enones. Although the method has been supplanted for synthetic purposes by hydride donors, the reduction of ketones to alcohols in ammonia or alcohols provides mechanistic insight into dissolving-metal reductions. The outcome of the reaction of ketones with metal reductants is determined by the fate of the initial ketyl radical formed by a single-electron transfer. The radical intermediate, depending on its structure and the reaction medium, may be protonated, disproportionate, or dimerize.209 In hydroxylic solvents such as liquid ammonia or in the presence of an alcohol, the protonation process dominates over dimerization. Net reduction can also occur by a disproportionation process. As is discussed in Section 5.6.3, dimerization can become the dominant process under conditions in which protonation does not occur rapidly. 

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