Quaternary hydrides

Isopyrazole quaternary salts (363) are key intermediates leading to the highly substituted A -pyrazolines. Lithium aluminum hydride gives the pentasubstituted derivatives (364 R = H) and Grignard reagents provide access to the fully substituted A -pyrazolines (364 R H) (68BSF3866, 70BSF1121). 

The preparation of enamines by reduction of aromatic heterocyclic bases and their quaternary salts or of lactams is not the most useful approach (97). The lithium aluminum hydride reduction of N-acyl enamines has been used with both fruitful and unsuccessful results. A series of 3-N-acetyl -d -cholestenes (104) has been prepared by desulfurization of the appropriate thiazolidine (105) (98,99). Lithium aluminum hydride reduction of the... 

In most reviews of enamine chemistry the reactions of iminium salts are scattered throughout the review and are consequently not covered in a comprehensive manner. This chapter will be an attempt to look at reactions that, at one stage or another, proceed by nucleophilic addition to the iminium intermediate. The subject of enamines has been reviewed 1-4) and certain aspects of iminium salt chemistry such as reduction of aromatic quaternary salts have been treated in detail (5). Consequently, the reduction of aromatic quaternary salts with complex hydrides will be presented here only briefly. Although the literature (especially 1950-1967) has been checked with care, the author can make no claim to completeness. The... 

The reduction of iminium salts can be achieved by a variety of methods. Some of the methods have been studied primarily on quaternary salts of aromatic bases, but the results can be extrapolated to simple iminium salts in most cases. The reagents available for reduction of iminium salts are sodium amalgam (52), sodium hydrosulfite (5i), potassium borohydride (54,55), sodium borohydride (56,57), lithium aluminum hydride (5 ), formic acid (59-63), H, and platinum oxide (47). The scope and mechanism of reduction of nitrogen heterocycles with complex metal hydrides has been recently reviewed (5,64), and will be presented here only briefly. 

Woodward s strychnine synthesis commences with a Fischer indole synthesis using phenylhydrazine (24) and acetoveratrone (25) as starting materials (see Scheme 2). In the presence of polyphosphor-ic acid, intermediates 24 and 25 combine to afford 2-veratrylindole (23) through the reaction processes illustrated in Scheme 2. With its a position suitably masked, 2-veratrylindole (23) reacts smoothly at the ft position with the Schiff base derived from the action of dimethylamine on formaldehyde to give intermediate 22 in 92% yield. TV-Methylation of the dimethylamino substituent in 22 with methyl iodide, followed by exposure of the resultant quaternary ammonium iodide to sodium cyanide in DMF, provides nitrile 26 in an overall yield of 97%. Condensation of 2-veratryl-tryptamine (20), the product of a lithium aluminum hydride reduction of nitrile 26, with ethyl glyoxylate (21) furnishes Schiff base 19 in a yield of 92%. 

A thio-substituted, quaternary ammonium salt can be synthesized by the Michael addition of an alkyl thiol to acrylamide in the presence of benzyl trimethyl ammonium hydroxide as a catalyst [793-795]. The reaction leads to the crystallization of the adducts in essentially quantitative yield. Reduction of the amides by lithium aluminum hydride in tetrahydrofuran solution produces the desired amines, which are converted to desired halide by reaction of the methyl iodide with the amines. The inhibitor is useful in controlling corrosion such as that caused by CO2 and H2S. 

Preparation of the quaternary anticholinergic agent benzilonium bromide (47) is begun by conjugate addition of ethylamine to methylacrylate, giving aminoester 42. Alkylation of 42 with methyl bromo-acetate leads to diester 43, which is transformed into pyrrolidone 44 by Dieckmann cyclization, followed by decarboxylation. Reduction of 44 by lithium aluminum hydride leads to the corresponding amino-alcohol (45). Transesterification of alcohol 45 with methyl benzilate leads to 46. Benzilonium bromide (47) is obtained by alkylation of ester 46 with ethyl bromide. 2... 

Finally, Cristau and coworkers have reported on a quite efficient preparation of triphenylphosphine oxide (Figure 2.13) by a similar addition-elimination reaction of red phosphorus with iodobenzene in the presence of a Lewis acid catalyst followed by oxidation of an intermediate tetraarylphosphonium salt.42 This approach holds the potential for the preparation of a variety of triarylphosphine oxides without proceeding through the normally used Grignard reagent. Of course, a variety of approaches is available for the efficient reduction of phosphine oxides and quaternary phosphonium salts to the parent phosphine, including the use of lithium aluminum hydride,43 meth-ylpolysiloxane,44 trichlorosilane,45 and hexachlorodisilane.46... 

Table I gives the compositions of alkylates produced with various acidic catalysts. The product distribution is similar for a variety of acidic catalysts, both solid and liquid, and over a wide range of process conditions. Typically, alkylate is a mixture of methyl-branched alkanes with a high content of isooctanes. Almost all the compounds have tertiary carbon atoms only very few have quaternary carbon atoms or are non-branched. Alkylate contains not only the primary products, trimethylpentanes, but also dimethylhexanes, sometimes methylheptanes, and a considerable amount of isopentane, isohexanes, isoheptanes and hydrocarbons with nine or more carbon atoms. The complexity of the product illustrates that no simple and straightforward single-step mechanism is operative rather, the reaction involves a set of parallel and consecutive reaction steps, with the importance of the individual steps differing markedly from one catalyst to another. To arrive at this complex product distribution from two simple molecules such as isobutane and butene, reaction steps such as isomerization, oligomerization, (3-scission, and hydride transfer have to be involved.

Tetrahydrotetrazolo[l,5- ]pyridine 52 was reacted with dimethyl sulfate to give a mixture of quaternary salts 1-methyl 53 and 2-methyl compounds 54 from which the 1-alkyl compound was separated as a crystalline hexafluorophosphate salt 53 (A = PF6) in good yield. This salt when treated with potassium hydride in the presence of 18-crown-6 and KCN underwent deprotonation to give the saturated six-membered ring 55. 

The reaction of methylenesulphones with allyl halides in the presence of quaternary ammonium salts produces the 1-allyl derivatives [52], unlike the corresponding reaction in the absence of the catalyst in which the SN- product is formed (Scheme 6.5). In contrast, alkylation of resonance stabilized anions derived from allyl sulphones produces complex mixtures [51] (Scheme 6.6). Encumbered allyl sulphones (e.g. 2-methylprop-2-enyl sulphones) tend to give the normal monoalkyl-ated products. Methylene groups, which are activated by two benzenesulphonyl substituents, are readily monoalkylated hydride reduction leads to the dithioacetal and subsequent hydrolysis affords the aldehyde [61]. 

Solid lithium aluminium hydride can be solublized in non-polar organic solvents with benzyltriethylammonium chloride. Initially, the catalytic effect of the lithium cation in the reduction of carbonyl compounds was emphasized [l-3], but this has since been refuted. A more recent evaluation of the use of quaternary ammonium aluminium hydrides shows that the purity of the lithium aluminium hydride and the dryness of the solvent are critical, but it has also been noted that trace amounts of water in the solid liquid system are beneficial to the reaction [4]. The quaternary ammonium aluminium hydrides have greater hydrolytic stability than the lithium salt the tetramethylammonium aluminium hydride is hydrolysed slowly in dilute aqueous acid and more lipophilic ammonium salts are more stable [4, 5]. 

In general, the rates of reduction by the ammonium salts are slower than those attained under normal conditions with the lithium salts, but the use of a non-ethereal solvent can be an advantage. Quaternary ammonium aluminium hydrides reduce ketones and amides effectively to alcohols and amines. Nitriles are also reduced to amines, whereas haloalkanes and arenes are reductively dehalogenated to give hydrocarbons in high yield [3]. 

General reduction procedure using quaternary ammonium aluminium hydrides... 

The quaternary ammonium salt (O.l mmol) is added with stirring to LiAIH4 (38 mg, 1 mmol) in PhMe (10 ml) under N2. The substrate (2 mmol) is added and the mixture heated (Table 11.1). Excess hydride is destroyed by the cautious addition of aqueous NH4C1 (10%) and the organic phase is separated, dried (MgS04), and evaporated to give the reduced product. 

Quaternary ammonium aluminium hydrides have also been prepared from the reaction of the quaternary ammonium borohydride and lithium aluminium hydride in THF at 20°C. LV Titov and VD Sasnovskaya, Zh. Neorg. Khim. 1974,19, 258 Chem. Abstr., 1974,80,81952. 

It has been postulated that direct hydride transfer from the formate ion to the ketone does not occur, but that interaction of the quaternary ammonium formate with... 

The pyridine ring is easily reduced in the form of its quaternary salts to give hexahydro derivatives by catalytic hydrogenation [446], and to tetrahydro and hexahydro derivatives by reduction with alane aluminum hydride) [447], sodium aluminum hydride [448], sodium bis 2-methoxyethoxy)aluminum hydride [448], sodium borohydride [447], potassium borohydride [449], sodium in ethanol [444, 450], and formic acid [318]. Reductions with hydrides give predominantly 1,2,5,6-tetrahydro derivatives while electroreduction and reduction with formic acid give more hexahydro derivatives [451,452]. 

If the quaternary nitrogen is a member of a ring, the ring is cleaved. 3-Benzyl-2-phenyl-A, A -dimethylpyrrolidinium chloride was cleaved by hydrogenation over Raney nickel at 20-25° almost quantitatively to 2-benzyl-4-dimethylamino-l-phenylbutane [722]. Reduction of methylpyridinium iodide (and its methyl homologs) with sodium aluminum hydride gave 24-89% yields of 5-methylamino-l,3-pentadiene (and its methyl homologs) in addition to A -methyl dihydro- and tetrahydropyridine [448]. 

N-Methylation of 3 and reduction of the crystalline oxazolidinone 4 with lithium aluminum hydride was found to give a superior yield of DAIB (5) and a more easily purified product than exhaustive methylation of 2 with methyl iodide and reduction of the quaternary methiodide with Super-Hydride. Recently, a modified version of DAIB, 3-exo-morpholinoisoborneol MIB), was prepared by Nugent that is crystalline and that is reported to give alcohols in high enantiomeric excess from the reaction of diethylzinc with aldehydes. ... 

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