Lithium aluminum hydride aliphatic nitro compounds

While aromatic nitro and azoxy compounds have been reduced to azo compounds with lithium aluminum hydride, aliphatic nitro compounds produced only the corresponding aliphatic amines [65]. The usual technique involves dropwise addition of 1 mole of nitro compound in ether to 1.05-1.15 moles of lithium aluminum hydride in ether solution at Dry Ice temperatures followed by warming to room temperature. If the resulting product is only slightly soluble in ether, hydrolysis should be carried out with dilute sulfuric acid. Then the azo compound simply needs to be filtered off, washed with water, and dried. If the product is ether-soluble, the ether layer is separated, evaporated, and the residue is recrystallized [65, 66]. 

Metal Hydrides. Metal hydrides can sometimes be used to prepare amines by reduction of various functional groups, but they are seldom the preferred method. Most metal hydrides do not reduce nitro compounds at all (64), although aliphatic nitro compounds can be reduced to amines with lithium aluminum hydride. When aromatic amines are reduced with this reagent, a2o compounds are produced. Nitriles, on the other hand, can be reduced to amines with lithium aluminum hydride or sodium borohydride under certain conditions. Other functional groups which can be reduced to amines using metal hydrides include amides, oximes, isocyanates, isothiocyanates, and a2ides (64). 

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