Lithium alkyl halide reduction

The reaction of an alkyl halide with lithium is an oxidation-reduction reac tion Group I metals are powerful reducing agents... 

Naphtho[l,8-de][l,2,3]triazine 114 can be alkylated with a variety of alkyl halides and lithium diisopropylamide (LDA) to give alkylated derivatives 115. Reduction of 115 with aluminium amalgam cleaves the naphthotriazine moiety to afford substituted a-aminoacids 116 in good overall yields <00TL6665>. 

Typically, the reactions are carried out using a controlled potential, with the potential set to a value that allows the selective reduction of Co(III) in the presence of the alkyl halide and Michael acceptor [26]. Only 1-20 mol % of the cobalt mediator is needed. The reactions are conducted in a medium in which lithium perchlorate... 

Since different reactivity is observed for both the stoichiometric and the catalytic version of the arene-promoted lithiation, different species should be involved in the electron-transfer process from the metal to the organic substrate. It has been well-established that in the case of the stoichiometric version an arene-radical anion [lithium naph-thalenide (LiCioHg) or lithium di-ferf-butylbiphenylide (LiDTBB) for using naphthalene or 4,4 -di-ferf-butylbiphenyl (DTBB) as arenes, respectively] is responsible for the reduction of the substrate, for instance for the transformation of an alkyl halide into an alkyllithium . For the catalytic process, using naphthalene as the arene, an arene-dianion 2 has been proposed which is formed by overreduction of the corresponding radical-anion 1 (Scheme 1). Actually, the dianionic species 2 has been prepared by a completely different approach, namely by double deprotonation of 1,4-dihydronaphthalene, and its X-ray structure determined as its complex with two molecules of N,N,N N tetramethylethylenediamine (TMEDA). ... 

Alkanes can also be prepared from alkyl halides by reduction, directly with Zn and acetic acid (AcOH) (see Section 5.7.14) or via the Grignard reagent formation followed by hydrolytic work-up (see Section 5.7.15). The coupling reaction of alkyl halides with Gilman reagent (R 2CuLi, lithium organocuprates) also produces alkanes (see Section 5.5.2). 

Protodehalogenation.1 This hydride is the reagent of choice for hydrogenolysis of alkyl halides. Lithium aluminum hydride is somewhat less powerful, particularly for reduction of alkyl chlorides. 

Kleinman and co-workers 20 synthesized a lactone precursor to the (2/ ,46, 56 )- -hydroxy-ethylene dipeptide stereoselectively in four steps using the lithium salt of ethyl propiolate as a homoenolate equivalent. As summarized in Scheme 11, addition of ethyl lithiopropiolate to a protected a-amino aldehyde affords hydroxy acetylenic esters as a mixture of dia-stereomers. Reduction of the acetylene group and subsequent lactonization gives a readily separable (4S)-lactone-enriched mixture. Direct alkylation with alkyl halide and lithium hexamethyldisilanazide yields the tram-lactone as the major stereoisomer. 

Lithium triethylborohydride (Super-Hydride) is a much more powerful reducing agent than lithium aluminium hydride. It is useful for the reductive dehalogenation of alkyl halides, but unlike lithium aluminium hydride does not affect aryl halides. It is available as solution in tetrahydrofuran in sealed containers under nitrogen. The solutions are flammable and moisture sensitive and should be handled with the same precautions as are taken with other organometallic reagents (see Section 4.2.47, p. 442). 

Reductive alkylation of carbon nanotubes using lithium and alkyl halides yields sidewall-functionalized nanotubes soluble in common organic solvents. Billups group prepared dodecylated SWCNTs from raw HiPCO tubes using lithium and dodecyl iodide in liquid ammonia and demonstrated the occurrence of exten-... 

The reduction of alkyl halides to organometallic compounds in aprotic solvents involves a heterogeneous reaction on the metal surface. This metal surface must be pure metal if it is to react efficiently in the desired way. If the surface of the metal has reacted with oxygen (Li, Mg, Zn) or even with nitrogen (Li), one must first remove the metal oxide or lithium nitride layer. This can be accomplished in the following ways ... 

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