Carboxylic acids lithium aluminum hydride

Sodium borohydride is a mild and selective reducing reagent. In ethanol solution it reduces aldehydes and ketones rapidly at 25°C, esters very slowly, and is inert toward functional groups that are readily reduced by lithium aluminum hydride carboxylic acids, epoxides, lactones, nitro groups, nitriles, azides, amides, and acid chlorides. 

Carboxylic acids are exceedingly difficult to reduce Acetic acid for example is often used as a solvent in catalytic hydrogenations because it is inert under the reaction con ditions A very powerful reducing agent is required to convert a carboxylic acid to a pri mary alcohol Lithium aluminum hydride is that reducing agent... 

Sodium borohydride is not nearly as potent a hydride donor as lithium aluminum hydride and does not reduce carboxylic acids... 

Lithium aluminum hydride reduction (Sec tion 15 3) Carboxylic acids are reduced to primary alcohols by the powerful reducing agent lithium aluminum hydride... 

Generally, the carboxyl group is not readily reduced. Lithium aluminum hydride is one of the few reagents that can reduce these organic acids to alcohols. The scheme involves the formation of an alkoxide, which is hydroly2ed to the alcohol. Commercially, the alternative to direct reduction involves esterification of the acid followed by the reduction of the ester. 

In most other reactions the azolecarboxylic acids and their derivatives behave as expected (cf. Scheme 52) (37CB2309), although some acid chlorides can be obtained only as hydrochlorides. Thus imidazolecarboxylic acids show the normal reactions they can be converted into hydrazides, acid halides, amides and esters, and reduced by lithium aluminum hydride to alcohols (70AHC(12)103). Again, thiazole- and isothiazole-carboxylic acid derivatives show the normal range of reactions. 

Properly substituted isoxazolecarboxylic acids can be converted into esters, acid halides, amides and hydrazides, and reduced by lithium aluminum hydride to alcohols. For example, 3-methoxyisoxazole-5-carboxylic acid (212) reacted with thionyl chloride in DMF to give the acid chloride (213) (74ACS(B)636). Ethyl 3-ethyl-5-methylisoxazole-4-carboxylate (214) was reduced with LAH to give 3-ethyl-4-hydroxymethyl-5-methylisoxazole (215) (7308(53)70). 

The Rosenmund reduction is usually applied for the conversion of a carboxylic acid into the corresponding aldehyde via the acyl chloride. Alternatively a carboxylic acid may be reduced with lithium aluminum hydride to the alcohol, which in turn may then be oxidized to the aldehyde. Both routes require the preparation of an intermediate product and each route may have its advantages over the other, depending on substrate structure. 

A setup similar to the preceding one is used in this experiment except that provision should be made for heating the reaction vessel (steam bath, oil bath, or mantle). Lithium aluminum hydride (10 g, 0.26 mole) is dissolved in 200 ml of dry -butyl ether and heated with stirring to 100°. A solution of 9.1 g (0.05 mole) of ra j-9-decalin-carboxylic acid (Chapter 16, Section I) in 100 ml of dry -butyl ether is added dropwise over about 30 minutes. The stirring and heating are continued for 4 days, after which the mixture is cooled and water is slowly added to decompose excess hydride. Dilute hydrochloric acid is added to dissolve the salts, and the ether layer is separated, washed with bicarbonate solution then water, and dried. The solvent is removed by distillation, and the residue is recrystallized from aqueous ethanol, mp 77-78°, yield 80-95 %. 

Lithium aluminum hydride, reaction with aldehydes, 610 reaction with carboxylic acids. 611-612... 

Compared to the lithium enolates of l and 5, the higher stereoselectivity obtained by the Mukaiyama variation is, in general, accompanied by reduced chemical yields. The chiral alcoholic moieties of the esters 3 and 7 can be removed either by reduction with lithium aluminum hydride (after protection of the earbinol group) or by aqueous alkaline hydrolysis with lithium hydroxide to afford the corresponding carboxylic acid. In both cases, the chiral auxiliary reagent can be recovered. 

In a more general sense, this reduction method provides a convenient pathway for converting an aromatic carboxyl group to a methyl group (see Table I).7 Previously, this transformation has been achieved by reduction of the acid to the alcohol with lithium aluminum hydride, conversion of the alcohol to the tosylate, and a second reduction either with lithium aluminum hydride [Aluminate(l —), tetrahydro, lithium,... 

The same nonpolar conformation can be achieved by conversion to bicyclic structures. 1,4-Cyclo-addition of ethylene to anthracene-9-carboxylic acid gives acid 68. Successive conversion to the N-methylamide, via the acid chloride, followed by reduction with lithium aluminum hydride produced... 

Reduction of carboxylic acids are the most difficult, but they can be accomplished with the powerful reducing agent lithium aluminum hydride (LiAlH4, abbreviated LAH). 

Free acids require still an additional hydride equivalent because their acidic hydrogens combine with one hydride ion of lithium aluminum hydride forming acyloxy trihydroaluminate ion. Complete reduction of free carboxylic acids to alcohols requires 0.75 mol of lithium aluminum hydride. The same amount is needed for reduction of monosubstituted amides to secondary amines. Unsubstituted amides require one full mole of lithium aluminum hydride since one half reacts with two acidic hydrogens while the second half achieves the reduction. 

The reduction of free acids to alcohols became practical only after the advent of complex hydrides. Lithium aluminum hydride reduces carboxylic acids to alcohols in ether solution very rapidly in an exothermic reaction. Because of the presence of acidic hydrogen in the carboxylic acid an additional equivalent of lithium aluminum hydride is needed beyond the amount required for the reduction. The stoichiometric ratio is 4 mol of the acid to 3 mol of lithium aluminum hydride (Equation 12, p. 18). Trimethylacetic add was reduced to neopentyl alcohol in 92% yield, and stearic acid to 1-octadecanol in 91% yield. Dicarboxylic sebacic acid was reduced to 1,10-decanedioI even if less than the needed amount of lithiiun aluminum hydride was used [968]. 

Lithium aluminum hydride reduces exclusively the carboxyl group, even in an unsaturated acid with a, -conjugated double bonds. Sorbic acid afforded 92% yield of sorbic alcohol [968], and fumaric acid gave 78% yield of trans-2-butene-l,4-diol [97S]. If, however, the a, -conjugated double bond of an add is at the same time conjugated with an aromatic ring it is reduced (p. 141). 

Reduction of aromatic carboxylic acids to alcohols can be achieved by hydrides and complex hydrides, e.g. lithium aluminum hydride 968], sodium aluminum hydride [55] and sodium bis 2-methoxyethoxy)aluminum hydride [544, 969, 970], and with borane (diborane) [976] prepared from sodium borohydride and boron trifluoride etherate [971, 977] or aluminum chloride [755, 975] in diglyme. Sodium borohydride alone does not reduce free carboxylic acids. Anthranilic acid was reduced to the corresponding alcohol by electroreduction in sulfuric acid at 20-30° in 69-78% yield [979],... 

The reduction of carboxylic acids or esters requires very powerful reducing agents such as lithium aluminum hydride (LiAlH,) or sodium (Na) metal. Aldehydes and ketones are easier to reduce, so they can use sodium borohy-dride (NaBH,j). Examples of these reductions are shown in Figure 3-13. 

Diclofenac Diclofenac, 2-[(2,6-dichlorophenyl)-amino]-phenylacetic acid (3.2.42), is synthesized from 2-chIorobenzoic acid and 2,6-dichloroaniline. The reaction of these in the presence of sodium hydroxide and copper gives iV-(2,6-dichlorophenyl)anthranyIic acid (3.2.38), the carboxylic group of which undergoes reduction by lithium aluminum hydride. The resulting 2-[(2,6-dicholorphenyl)-amino]-benzyl alcohol (3.2.39) undergoes further chlorination by thionyl chloride into 2-[(2,6-dichlorophenyl)-amino]-ben-zylchloride (3.2.40) and further, upon reaction with sodium cyanide converts into... 

A carboxylic acid group may be introduced into the 2-position of dibenzofuran by Friedel-Crafts reaction with 2,2-dichloro-l,3-benzodioxole (catechol dichloromethylene ether) and hydrolysis of the resultant ester. Similarly, reaction with methylphenylcarbamoyl chloride produces the 2-(N-methyl-yV-phenylcarboxamide) or the 2,8-disubstituted derivative under more stringent conditions. Controlled reduction of these amides with lithium aluminum hydride supplies the corresponding aldehydes. ... 

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