Nickel alloys amide

Raney copper is prepared from the commercially available copper aluminum alloy. It does not have much to offer the synthetic chemist as only a few reactions are reported to be affected by this catalyst. Raney copper, as well as Raney cobalt, generally produces fewer side reactions than Raney nickel even though they usually require higher reaction temperatures for the same reaction. Raney copper is, however, quite usefiil for the selective hydrogenation of substituted dinitro benzenes (Eqn. 8.6) with its activity apparently increasing with continued reuse. Raney copper can also be used for the catalytic hydrolysis of hindered nitriles to the amides (Eqn. 12.13). "2... 

When triphenylarsine in xylene is heated with hydrogen (60 atm) benzene and arsenic are produced 267). Raney nickel cleaves tri-(a-naphthyl)arsine and triphenylarsine yielding binaphthyl and biphenyl respectively 265). Nickel-aluminum alloy in aqueous alkali gives aniline from arsanilic acid 268), and sodium amide in boiling piperidine cleaves benzenearsonic acid 269). Phenyl groups are also lost from triphenylarsine when this is irradiated with thermal neutrons 270). 

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