Hydrogen donors formic acid

Formic acid as a stable organic hydrogen donor is an alternative to the flammable molecular hydrogen. Although Ru(II)-complexes are known to catalyze the reversible process C, the reduction of the imine is a result of transfer hydrogenation by formic acid. Interference of molecular hydrogen does not take place. 

In addition to standard catalytic hydrogenolysis, methods for transfer hydrogenolysis using hydrogen donors such as ammonium formate or formic acid with Pd-C catalyst are available.216 The Cbz group also can be removed by a combination of a Lewis acid and a nucleophile for example, boron trifluoride in conjunction with dimethyl sulfide or ethyl sulfide.217... 

Formic acid can also act as a donor of hydrogen, and the driving force in this case is the formation of carbon dioxide. A useful application is the Clark-Eschweiler... 

A number of hydrogen donors such as cyclohexene, 1,4-cyclohexadiene, and formic acid have been successfully used in the presence of different heterogeneous Pd catalysts (Scheme 4.53). 

Formic acid is a widely used hydrogen donor.240 Flowever, since the active species in formic acid is the formate anion, it has been demonstrated that formate salts are superior to formic acid. Ammonium formate is used frequently as a hydrogen donor.241-243... 

As with hydrogenation, hydrogen transfer of imines is a poorly developed field.126-130 However, recent arene-Ru11 systems bearing chiral 1,2-diamine co-ligands have been found to be excellent catalysts for asymmetric reduction of imines with formic acid as donor.31,131-134... 

Gordon used a household microwave oven for the transfer hydrogenation of benz-aldehyde with (carbonyl)-chlorohydridotris-(triphenylphosphine)ruthenium(II) as catalyst and formic acid as hydrogen donor (Eq. 11.43) [61]. An improvement in the average catalytic activity from 280 to 6700 turnovers h-1 was achieved when the traditional reflux conditions were replaced by microwave heating. 

Transfer hydrogenations are typically equilibrium reactions however, when formic acid (49) is utilized as the hydrogen donor, carbon dioxide (50) is formed which escapes from the reaction mixture [61-64]. 

Scheme 20.18 Reduction of the C-C double bond of itaconic acid (51) utilizing a rhodium catalyst (54) and formic acid (49) as hydrogen donor.

Hydrogen transfer reactions are highly selective and usually no side products are formed. However, a major problem is that such reactions are in redox equilibrium and high TOFs can often only be reached when the equilibria involved are shifted towards the product side. As stated above, this can be achieved by adding an excess of the hydrogen donor. (For a comparison, see Table 20.2, entry 8 and Table 20.7, entry 3, in which a 10-fold increase in TOF, from 6 to 60, can be observed for the reaction catalyzed by neodymium isopropoxide upon changing the amount of hydrogen donor from an equimolar amount to a solvent. Removal of the oxidation product by distillation also increases the reaction rate. When formic acid (49) is employed, the reduction is a truly irreversible reaction [82]. This acid is mainly used for the reduction of C-C double bonds. As the proton and the hydride are removed from the acid, carbon dioxide is formed, which leaves the reaction mixture. Typically, the reaction is performed in an azeotropic mixture of formic acid and triethylamine in the molar ratio 5 2 [83],... 

The reductive alkylation of amines is called the Leuckart-Wallach reaction [112-115]. The primary or secondary amine reacts with the ketone or aldehyde. The formed imine is then reduced with formic acid as hydrogen donor (Scheme 20.27). When amines are reductively methylated with formaldehyde and formic acid, the process is termed the Eschweiler-Clarke procedure [116, 117]. 

Other salts of formic acid have been used with good results. For example, sodium and preferably potassium formate salts have been used in a water/organic biphasic system [36, 52], or with the water-soluble catalysts discussed above. The aqueous system makes the pH much easier to control minimal COz is generated during the reaction as it is trapped as bicarbonate, and often better reaction rates are observed. The use of hydrazinium monoformate salts as hydrogen donors with heterogeneous catalysts has also been reported [53]. 

The product is an equilibrium mixture and an excess of 2-propanol must be used to obtain high yields. Ammonium formate or formic acid have also been used as the hydrogen donor and now the reaction to the alcohol is complete, because the thermodynamics are more favourable and because C02 leaves the reaction medium. 

In spite of the success of asymmetric iridium catalysts for the direct hydrogenation of alkenes, there has been very limited research into the use of alternative hydrogen donors. Carreira and coworkers have reported an enantioselective reduction of nitroalkenes in water using formic acid and the iridium aqua complex 69 [66]. For example, the reduction of nitroalkene 70 led to the formation of the product 71 in good yield and enantioselectivity (Scheme 17). The use of other aryl substrates afforded similar levels of enantioselectivity. 

Formic acid, anhydrous (M.W. 46.03, m.p. 8.5°, b.p. 100.8°, density 1.22), or a 90% aqueous solution, is an excellent hydrogen donor in catalytic hydrogen transfer carried out by heating in the presence of copper [77] or nickel [77]. Also its salt with triethylamine is used for the same purpose in the presence of palladium [72, 73], Conjugated double bonds, triple bonds, aromatic rings and nitro compounds are hydrogenated in this way. 

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