Lithium aluminum hydride ketones

The success of the halo ketone route depends on the stereo- and regio-selectivity in the halo ketone synthesis, as well as on the stereochemistry of reduction of the bromo ketone. Lithium aluminum hydride or sodium borohydride are commonly used to reduce halo ketones to the /mm-halohydrins. However, carefully controlled reaction conditions or alternate reducing reagents, e.g., lithium borohydride, are often required to avoid reductive elimination of the halogen. 

Asymmetric reduction of ketones. Lithium aluminum hydride, after partial decomposition with 1 equiv. of 1 and an amine additive such as N-benzylmethylamine, can effect asymmetric reduction of prochiral ketones at temperatures of —20°. The highest... 

I mole reduces 4 moles of an aldehyde or ketone, lithium aluminum hydride has a very favorable ratio of reducing capacity to mass. 

For most laboratory scale reductions of aldehydes and ketones catalytic hydro genation has been replaced by methods based on metal hydride reducing agents The two most common reagents are sodium borohydride and lithium aluminum hydride... 

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... 

The mechanism of lithium aluminum hydride reduction of aldehydes and ketones IS analogous to that of sodium borohydride except that the reduction and hydrolysis... 

Reduction to alcohols (Section 15 2) Aide hydes are reduced to primary alcohols and ketones are reduced to secondary alcohols by a variety of reducing agents Catalytic hydrogenation over a metal catalyst and reduction with sodium borohydride or lithium aluminum hydride are general methods... 

Another synthesis of the cortisol side chain from a C17-keto-steroid is shown in Figure 20. Treatment of a C3-protected steroid 3,3-ethanedyidimercapto-androst-4-ene-ll,17-dione [112743-82-5] (144) with a tnhaloacetate, 2inc, and a Lewis acid produces (145). Addition of a phenol and potassium carbonate to (145) in refluxing butanone yields the aryl vinyl ether (146). Concomitant reduction of the C20-ester and the Cll-ketone of (146) with lithium aluminum hydride forms (147). Deprotection of the C3-thioketal, followed by treatment of (148) with y /(7-chlotopetben2oic acid, produces epoxide (149). Hydrolysis of (149) under acidic conditions yields cortisol (29) (181). 

Lithium aluminum hydride (LiAlH4) is the most powerful of the hydride reagents. It reduces acid chlorides, esters, lactones, acids, anhydrides, aldehydes, ketones and epoxides to alcohols amides, nitriles, imines and oximes to amines primary and secondary alkyl halides and toluenesulfonates to... 

As a general procedure, a mixture of the steroidal ketone (50 mg) and lithium aluminum deuteride (20 mg) in dry ether (5 ml, freshly distilled from lithium aluminum hydride) is heated under reflux until the reduction is complete according to thin layer chromatography test. The excess deuteride is then decomposed by the careful addition of a few drops of water and the reaction mixture is worked up by the usual procedure. For hindered ketones or esters the use of other solvents, such as tetrahydrofuran or dioxane, may be preferable to allow higher reaction temperatures. 

The treatment of ketoximes with lithium aluminum hydride is usually a facile method for the conversion of ketones into primary amines, although in certain cases secondary amine side products are also obtained. Application of this reaction to steroidal ketoximes, by using lithium aluminum deuteride and anhydrous ether as solvent, leads to epimeric mixtures of monodeuterated primary amines the ratio of the epimers depends on the position of the oxime function. An illustrative example is the preparation of the 3(x-dj- and 3j5-di-aminoandrostane epimers (113 and 114, R = H) in isotopic purities equal to that of the reagent. 

A direct reduction of the A" -3-keto system can be effected with lithium aluminum hydride-aluminum chloride. The last two methods are unsatisfactory with A -3-ketones (ref. 185, p. 253 ref. 255, but cf. ref. 229). 

Enamines of A" -3-ketones (45) are stable to lithium aluminum hydride, but lithium borohydride reduces the 3,4-double bond of the enamine system." In the presence of acetic acid the enamine (45) is reduced by sodium borohydride to the A -3-amine (47) via the iminium cation (46). ... 

The properties of chlorine azide resemble those of bromine azide. Pon-sold has taken advantage of the stronger carbon-chlorine bond, i.e., the resistance to elimination, in the chloro azide adducts and thus synthesized several steroidal aziridines. 5a-Chloro-6 -azidocholestan-3 -ol (101) can be converted into 5, 6 -iminocholestan-3l -ol (102) in almost quantitative yield with lithium aluminum hydride. It is noteworthy that this aziridine cannot be synthesized by the more general mesyloxyazide route. Addition of chlorine azide to testosterone followed by acetylation gives both a cis- and a trans-2iddMct from which 4/S-chloro-17/S-hydroxy-5a-azidoandrostan-3-one acetate (104) is obtained by fractional crystallization. In this case, sodium borohydride is used for the stereoselective reduction of the 3-ketone... 

The introduction of the l/, 2j5-methylene function into cortical hormones is best carried out by starting with the A -3)S-aIcohols (7) which are prepared by lithium aluminum hydride or lithium tri-t-butoxyaluminum hydride reduction of the corresponding A -3-ketones. 

A rather special procedure for the preparation of 21-hydroxy-20-ketopreg-nanes starts with the 17a-ethoxyethynyl-17 -hydroxy steroids described earlier. Free radical addition of ethanethiol to the triple bond, followed by acid-catalyzed hydrolysis and dehydration gives the 20-thioenol ether 21-aldehyde. This can be reduced with lithium aluminum hydride to the C-21 alcohol and then hydrolyzed to the C-20 ketone in the presence of mercuric chloride. The overall yield, without isolation of intermediates, is in the order of 50% ... 

An alternate method of producing the 21-hydroxy-20-ketone consists in lithium aluminum hydride reduction of the dimethyl acetal, hydrolysis to the 20-hydroxy-21-aldehyde and rearrangement, preferably via the bisulfite addition product... 

N-acyl enaminc (104, R = CHjCHj) gave an unstable enamine (106) which decomposed readily to 3-cholestanone. The steroidal N-acetyl enamines (107 and 108, R = C HjCHj) can be reduced by lithium aluminum hydride in tctrahydrofuran to the corresponding enamines (109, R = CJH5CH2) in 90 and 68% yield, respectively 100). Attempts to reduce the enamide (107, R = CH3) led to the formation of the impure enamine (109, R = CHj), which decomposed to the hydroxy ketone (110). 

The chemical reduction of enamines by hydride again depends upon the prior generation of an imonium salt (111,225). Thus an equivalent of acid, such as perchloric acid, must be added to the enamine in reductions with lithium aluminum hydride. Studies of the steric course (537) of lithium aluminum hydride reductions of imonium salts indicate less stereoselectivity in comparison with the analogous carbonyl compounds, where an equatorial alcohol usually predominates in the reduction products of six-membered ring ketones. 

Modification of the ketonic side chain is also consistent with retention of analgesic activity. Thus, reduction of methadone with lithium aluminum hydride affords the alcohol, 128 (apparently as a single diastereomer). Acetylation gives acetyl-methadol (129). ... 

The lithium aluminum hydride-aluminum chloride reduction of ketones is closely related mechanistically to the Meerwein-Ponndorf-Verley reduction in that the initially formed alkoxide complex is allowed to equilibrate between isomers in the... 

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