Hydride osmium ketone

Lithium aluminium hydride reduction of 235 followed by mesylation afforded 236. The latter was oxidized with osmium tetroxide and sodium metaperiodate to yield the cyclobutanone 237. Treatment of 237 with acid afforded in 48% yield the ketoacid (238), which was esterified with diazomethane to 239. The latter was converted to the ketal 240 by treatment with ethylene glycol and /7-toluenesulfonic acid. Compound 240 was reduced with lithium aluminium hydride to the alcohol 241. This alcohol had been synthesized previously by Nagata and co-workers (164) by an entirely different route. The azide 242 was prepared in 80% yield by mesylation of 241 and treatment of the product with sodium azide. Lithium aluminium hydride reduction of 242 gave the primary amine, which was converted to the urethane 243 by treatment with ethyl chloroformate. The ketal group of 243 was removed by acidic hydrolysis and the resulting ketone was nitro-sated with N204 and sodium acetate. Decomposition of the nitrosourethane with sodium ethoxide in refluxing ethanol afforded the ketone 244 in 65% yield. The latter had been also synthesized previously by Japanese chemists (165). The ketone 244 was converted to the ketal 246 and the latter to 247... 

The heterobimetallic complexes [N(n-Bu)4] [Os(N)R2(/u.-0)2Cr02] catalyze the selective oxidation of alcohols with molecular oxygen. A mechanism in which alcohol coordinates to the osmium center and is oxidized by B-hydrogen elimination (see -Hydride Elimination) is consistent with the data. The hydroxide adduct of OSO4, [0s(0H)204], with ferric cyanide and other co-oxidants catalyzes the oxidative dehydrogenation of primary aromatic and aliphatic amines to nitriles, the oxidation of primary alcohols to carboxylic acids, and of secondary alcohols to ketones. Osmium derivatives such as OsCb catalyze the effective oxidation of saturated hydrocarbons in acetonitrile through a radical mechanism. ... 

Hydroxyketones are versatile intermediates in the synthesis of pharmaceutical intermediates and heterocyclic molecules. a-Aryl hydroxyketones have been prepared by reaction of aryl aldehydes with 1,4-dioxane followed by reduction with lithium aluminum hydride (LAH) and by the selective LAH reduction of a-silyloxy a,P-unsaturated esters." WissneC has shown that treatment of acid chlorides with tris(trimethylsilyloxy)ethylene affords alkyl and aryl hydroxymethyl ketones. 1-Hydroxy-3-phenyl-2-propanone (3) has been generated by the osmium-catalyzed oxidation of phenylpropene and by the palladium-catalyzed rearrangement of phenyl epoxy alcohoP both in 62% yield. 

---