Lithium general advantages

The reductions of chlorosilanes by lithium aluminum hydride, lithium hydride, and other metal hydrides, MH, offers the advantages of higher yield and purity as well as dexibiUty in producing a range of siUcon hydrides comparable to the range of siUcon haUdes (59). The general reaction is as follows ... 

The properties of chlorine azide resemble those of bromine azide. Pon-sold has taken advantage of the stronger carbon-chlorine bond, i.e., the resistance to elimination, in the chloro azide adducts and thus synthesized several steroidal aziridines. 5a-Chloro-6 -azidocholestan-3 -ol (101) can be converted into 5, 6 -iminocholestan-3l -ol (102) in almost quantitative yield with lithium aluminum hydride. It is noteworthy that this aziridine cannot be synthesized by the more general mesyloxyazide route. Addition of chlorine azide to testosterone followed by acetylation gives both a cis- and a trans-2iddMct from which 4/S-chloro-17/S-hydroxy-5a-azidoandrostan-3-one acetate (104) is obtained by fractional crystallization. In this case, sodium borohydride is used for the stereoselective reduction of the 3-ketone... 

The general trend is that boron enolates parallel lithium enolates in their stereoselectivity but show enhanced stereoselectivity. There also are some advantages in terms of access to both stereoisomeric enol derivatives. Another important characteristic of boron enolates is that they are not subject to internal chelation. The tetracoordinate dialkylboron in the cyclic TS is not able to accept additional ligands, so there is no tendency to form a chelated TS when the aldehyde or enolate carries a donor substituent. Table 2.2 gives some typical data for boron enolates and shows the strong correspondence between enolate configuration and product stereochemistry. 

In general, the rates of reduction by the ammonium salts are slower than those attained under normal conditions with the lithium salts, but the use of a non-ethereal solvent can be an advantage. Quaternary ammonium aluminium hydrides reduce ketones and amides effectively to alcohols and amines. Nitriles are also reduced to amines, whereas haloalkanes and arenes are reductively dehalogenated to give hydrocarbons in high yield [3]. 

The general trend then is that boron enolates parallel lithium enolates in their stereoselectivity but show enhanced stereoselectivity. They also have the advantage of providing access to both stereoisomeric enol derivatives. Table 2.3 gives a compilation of some of the data on stereoselectivity of aldol reactions with boron enolates. 

Generally, during the first step, a diethyl ether adduct of the alane is synthesized, which should not be isolated and can be used for the next step (Eq. 2) in situ . This method to generate the alane has the advantage with respect to other procedures to start from the easily available lithium alanate (which should be purified before use). The reaction with the alcohol or silanol can be followed by the evolution of gaseous hydrogen. Depending on the acidity of the alcohol or the silanol the reaction mixture has to be cooled. 

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