Lithium ammonia

Several substituted cyclohexane derivatives may also be obtained by the reduction of a benzenoid precursor. Partial reduction of resorcinol, for example, and subsequent methyla-tion yields 2-methylcyclohexane-I,3-dione, which is frequently used in steroid synthesis (M.S. Newman, 1960 see also p. 71f.), From lithium-ammonia reduction of alkoxybenzenes l-alkoxy-l,4-cyclohexadienes are obtained (E.J. Corey, 1968 D). 

Ketonic carbonyl groups are commonly encountered in steroids and their reduction is facile, even in the absence of an alcohol. The lithium-ammonia reduction of androsta-l,4-diene-3,17-dione affords androst-4-ene-3,17-dione in 20% yield but concurrent reduction of the C-17 ketone results in formation of testosterone in 40% yield, even though the reduction is performed rapidly at —40 to —60° and excess lithium is destroyed with solid ammonium chloride. Similar reduction of the C-17 carbonyl group has been observed in other compounds. In the presence of an alcohol, a ketone is complete-... 

Aromatic steroids are virtually insoluble in liquid ammonia and a cosolvent must be added to solubilize them or reduction will not occur. Ether, ethylene glycol dimethyl ether, dioxane and tetrahydrofuran have been used and, of these, tetrahydrofuran is the preferred solvent. Although dioxane is often a better solvent for steroids at room temperature, it freezes at 12° and its solvent effectiveness in ammonia is diminished. Tetrahydrofuran is infinitely miscible with liquid ammonia, but the addition of lithium to a 1 1 mixture causes the separation of two liquid phases, one blue and one colorless, together with the separation of a lithium-ammonia bronze phase. Thus tetrahydrofuran and lithium depress the solubilities of each other in ammonia. A tetrahydrofuran-ammonia mixture containing much over 50 % of tetrahydrofuran does not become blue when lithium is added. In general, a 1 1 ratio of ammonia to organic solvents represents a reasonable compromise between maximum solubility of steroid and dissolution of the metal with ionization. 

A variety of conjugated dienones are reduced by lithium-ammonia, presumably via dienyl carbanions analogous to the allyl carbanions encountered in enone reductions. Cross-conjugated l,4-dien-3-ones afford 4-en-3-ones as the major reduction products, indicating that the cyclohexadienyl carbanion (55) protonates largely at C-1. Some protonation at C-5 does occur as shown by examination of the NMR spectrum of the crude reduction product derived from the 17-ethylene ketal of androsta-l,4-diene-3,17-dione. The 17-ethylene ketal of androst-4-ene-3,17-dione is formed in 75%... 

Reduction of linearly conjugated 4,6-dien-3-ones with lithium-ammonia yields either 5-en-3-ones or 4-en-3-ones depending upon the work-up procedure. Protonation of the dienyl carbanion intermediate (58) occurs at C-7 to give ultimately the enolate ion (59) kinetic protonation of (59) occurs largely at C-4 to give the 5-en-3-one (60). ... 

Lithium-ammonia reductions of most steroidal enones of interest create one or two new asymmetric centers. Such reductions are found to be highly stereoselective and this stereoselectivity constitutes the great utility of the reaction. For conjugated enones of the normal steroid series, the thermodynamically most stable products are formed predominantly and perhaps exclusively. Thus the following configurations are favored 5a, 8/ , 9a, and in certain cases 14a (see page 35). Starr has listed numerous examples illustrating these facts and Smith " and Barton have tabulated similar data. 

A study of the lithium-ammonia reduction of 14-en-16-ones would extend our understanding of the configuration favored at C-14 in metal-ammonia reductions. Although several simple 14-en-16-ones are known, their reduction by lithium and ammonia apparently has not been described in the literature. Lithium-ammonia reduction of A-nortestosterone, a compound that structurally is somewhat analogous to a 14-en-16-one, affords roughly equal amounts of the 5a- and 5 -dihydro-A-nortestosterones. " This finding was interpreted as indicating that there is little difference in thermodynamic stability between the two stereoisomeric products. 

Lithium-ammonia reduction of l7a-ethyl-19-nortestosterone (68) using Procedure 8a (section V) affords the 4,5a-dihydro compound (69) in 85% yield after a reaction time of 12 minutes after a reaction time of 80 minutes, the yield of (69) is 76%. Lfsing sodium in the same reduction, the yields of compound (69) are 79 and 77 % after reaction times of 8 and 80 minutes respectively. Both the lithium and sodium enolates appear to be reasonably stable in liquid ammonia in the presence of alkali metal. Since the enolate salts are poorly soluble in ammonia, their resistance to protonation by it may be due in part to this factor. 

Reaction times of from 5 to 60 minutes have been employed for the reduction of conjugated enones. Although the longer times apparently do not seriously diminish the yields of products, they usually are not necessary. If a conjugated enone is sufficiently soluble in the reaction medium, it is reduced almost instantly when added to lithium-ammonia solutions. 

In section V-A it has been pointed out that catalytic reduction of conjugated enones is usually a good method for the preparation of p- or y-labeled ketones. To overcome certain stereochemical problems, however, it is occasionally necessary to use the lithium-ammonia reduction. In this case deuteration takes place at the / -carbon and generally leads to the thermodynamically more stable product (see chapter 1). 

A useful alternate procedure which allows the generation and alkylation of the less stable enolate anion has been reported by Stork.This method takes advantage of the fact that the thermodynamically less stable enolate anion formed in the lithium ammonia reduction of a conjugated enone... 

In this experiment, advantage is made of the fact that lithium-ammonia reduction usually proceeds to give trans-fused Decalins 4). Thus, hydrogenation of A -octal one-2 over palladium catalyst gives essentially cw-2-decalone as the product, whereas the lithium-ammonia reduction of the octalone gives the trans ring fusion. 

Mechanism of the lithium/ ammonia reduction of an alkyne to produce a trans alkene. 

Although water was used as a proton donor in this preparation, drying of the liquid ammonia and ether was carried out so that the lithium-ammonia solution would not be exposed to water during preparation and so that the amount of water added could be accurately controlled. 

A portion of the product was heated to reflux with methanolic sodium methoxide to convert it into the thermodynamic mixture of trans- (ca. 65%) and cis- (ca. 35%) isomers. Small amounts of the isomers were collected by preparative gas chromatography using an 8 mm. by 1.7 m. column containing 15% Carbowax 20M on Chromosorb W, and each isomer exhibited the expected spectral and analytical properties. The same thermodynamic mixture of isomers was prepared independently by lithium-ammonia reduction5 of 2-allyl-3-methyl-cyclohex-2-enone [2-Cyclohexen-l-one, 3-methyl-2-(2-propcnyl)-],6 followed by equilibration with methanolic sodium methoxide. 

Unless a proton donor is added, the lithium-ammonia reduction of an cnone leads to the lithium enolate and lithium amide. The latter is a sufficiently strong base to rapidly convert the mono-alkylated ketone into its enolate, which can be further alkylated. The function of the... 

Reacts with vapors of sodium with luminescence at about 260°C. Reacts explosively with thionyl chloride or potassium reacts violently with hexafluoro isopropylidene, amino lithium, ammonia, and strong acids reacts with tert-butyl azidoformate to form explosive carbide reacts with 24-hexadiyn-l, 6-diol to form 2, 4-hexadiyn-l, 6-bischloro-formate, a shock-sensitive compound reacts with isopropyl alcohol to form isopropyl chloroformate and hydrogen chloride thermal decomposition may occur in the presents of iron salts and result in explosion. 

Lithium-ammonia reduction of a,/ -unsaturated ketones (entry 6, Scheme 1.4) provides a very useful method for generating specific enolates.26 The desired starting materials are often readily available, and the position of the double bond in the enone determines the structure of the resulting enolate. This and other reductive methods for generating enolates from enones will be discussed more frilly in Chapter 5. Another very important method for specific enolate generation, the addition of organometallic reagents to enones, will be discussed in Chapter 8. 

Cleavage of cyclopropyl ketones.8 Cyclopropyl ketones are converted by lSi(CH3)3 under very mild conditions into y-iodo ketones. The regioselectivity is usually high and is similar to that observed in lithium-ammonia reductions. 

---