Lithium aluminium hydride decomposition

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... 

Hydrogenolysis of the toluene-4-sulfonate of an alcohol may be carried out with a nucleophilic hydride such as lithium aluminium hydride. There are also a series of radical methods based on the reduction of alkyl halides with tri- -butyltin hydride (BUjSnH). Finally, the source of the hydrogen may be the electrophilic proton, exemplified by the decomposition of organometallic reagents such as the Grignard reagent with water. 

The method used by Coates and Robinson" involved the copper-catalysed decomposition of trans,trans-farnesyl diazoacetate (4) to the cyclopropyl-lactone (5) having the stereochemistry shown. This was transformed into the cis-aldehyde-ester (6) by standard methods. Base epimerization gave the more stable transcompound (7). A Wittig reaction between the trans-aldehyde-ester (7) and the phosphorane (8), followed by lithium aluminium hydride reduction, yielded presqualene alcohol (1) as the major product accompanied by the minor isomer (9). 

CH3-C0-C=CH2 and >CH-CH20H follow from n.m.r. and i.r. spectra, that of the two AT-methyl groups from n.m.r. The constitution follows from the mass spectral decomposition which involves two principal fragmentation modes which are shown in Scheme 14. This scheme is supported by, amongst other things, examination of the spectra of 20,21-dihydromacroline (catalytic hydrogenation product), the so-called macralinol (ketone function reduced with lithium aluminium hydride), and structurally related derivatives of ajmaline. ... 

The determination of active hydrogen is usually based on known reactions with a Grignard reagent or lithium aluminium hydride. In the first instance methane is liberated and can easily be determined by GC. The use of methods with a chromatographic finish [86-89] eliminates many of the errors that arise when a classical chemical method is used [90] (caused, for instance, by liberation of ethane as a result of decomposition of a Grignard reagent). 

Tertiary oxides containing a hydroxy groups are less stable than simple alkyl derivatives, and undergo thermal decomposition at about 100°C to form secondary phosphine oxides (6.120). Tertiary oxides can be reduced to tertiary phosphines with lithium aluminium hydride (6.58). Alkali hydrides form phosphinite derivatives (6.121). 

Cyclic Disulphides and Cyclic Diselenides.—Formation. No fundamentally new methods of synthesis of this class of compounds have been reported in the past two years. For l,2>dithiolan the oxidation of l,3>dithiols remains a favoured method, the use of iodine in the presence of triethylamine leading smoothly to 1,2-dithiolans without attendant polymerization. cis- and tra/ -l,2-Dithiolan-3,5-dicarboxylic acids were prepared from a diastereo-isomeric mixture of dimethyl 2,4-dibromoglutarates by sequential treatment with potassium thioacetate and potassium hydroxide in the presence of iodine,and jyn-2,3-dithiabicyclo[3,2,l]octan-8-ol was formed from 2,6-dibromocyclohexanone by successive treatment with potassium thiocyanate, lithium aluminium hydride, and iodine. The stereoselective formation of the less thermodynamically stable alcohol in this case was attributed partly to the formation of chelates with sulphur-aluminium bonds. 2,2-Dimethyl-l,3-dibromopropane was converted into 4,4-dimethyl-l,2-diselenolan on treatment with potassium selenocyanate at 175 °C, but at 140 °C the product was 3,3-dimethylselenetan. Reductive debenzylation of 2-alkylamino-l,3-bis(benzylthio)propanes with lithium in liquid ammonia and oxidation of the resultant dithiols with air afforded 4-dialkylamino-l,2-dithiolans, whilst treatment of a-bromomethyl-chalcone with sodium hydrosulphide gave, as minor product, trans-3 phenyl-4-benzoyl-l,2-dithiolan. Among the many products of thermal decomposition of /ra/ -2,4-diphenylthietan was l,4,5,7-tetraphenyl-2,3-dithiabicyclo [2,2,2]octane. ... 

Presence of carbon dioxide in solutions of the hydride in dimethyl or bis(2-methoxy-ethyl) ether can cause a violent decomposition on warming the residue from evaporation. Presence of aluminium chloride tends to increase the vigour of decomposition to explosion. Lithium tetrahydroaluminate may behave similarly, but is generally more stable. 

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