Of esters to alcohols

Bouveault-Blanc reduction The reduction of esters to alcohols by nascent hydrogen gen-... 

C and 19,600 kPa (2800 psi). The catalyst is a complex aluminum—ca dmium —chromium oxide that has high activity and exceptionally long life. The process is claimed to give a conversion of ester to alcohol of about 99% retaining essentially all of the original double bonds. 

Reduction of esters to alcohols by means of sodium in alcohol... 

Alcohols are the most frequently formed products of ester hydrogenolysis. The hydrogenation of esters to alcohols is a reversible reaction with alcohol formation favored at high pressure, ester at low pressure (/). Copper chromite is usually the catalyst of choice. Details for the preparation of this catalyst (/7) and a detailed procedure for hydrogenation of ethyl adipate to hexamethylene glycol (/[Pg.80]

The products are liberated by hydrolysis of the aluminum alkoxide at the end of the reaction. Lithium aluminum hydride reduction of esters to alcohols involves an elimination step in addition to hydride transfers. 

Only scare data is available in the literature on the application of rhenium containing mono- or bimetallic catalysts in the hydrogenolysis of esters to alcohols. Decades ago Broadbent and co-workers studied the hydrogenation of organic carbonyl compounds (aldehydes, ketones, esters, anhydrides, acids,... 

The combination of (EtO)3SiH/CsF (or KF) provides a convenient reagent for the reduction of esters to alcohols.76,80,83 The yields are in the 70% range. Potassium tetraethoxyhydridosilicate also reduces esters in moderate yields.288 The combination of PM HS/CpiTiCE/n-BuLi reduces esters in high yields even in the presence of an epoxide and a trisubstituted olefin (Eq. 140).289 The reagent combination can reduce a methyl ester in the presence of a tert-butyl ester (Eq. 141).290... 

With the same excess of catalysts hydrogenations of the esters over Raney nickel could be carried out at temperatures as low as 25-125° at 350atm with comparable results (80% yields). However, benzene rings were saturated under these conditions [55]. In addition to nickel and copper, zinc and chromium oxides, rhenium obtained by reduction of rhenium heptoxide also catalyzes hydrogenation of esters to alcohols at 150-250° and 167-340 atm in 35-100% yields [42]. 

Both older methods for the reduction of esters to alcohols, catalytic hydrogenation and reduction with sodium, have given way to reductions with hydrides and complex hydrides which have revolutionized the laboratory preparation of alcohols from esters. 

Countless reductions of esters to alcohols have been accomplished using lithium aluminum hydride. One half of a mol of this hydride is needed for reduction of 1 mol of the ester. Ester or its solution in ether is added to a solution of lithium aluminum hydride in ether. The heat of reaction brings the mixture to boiling. The reaction mixture is decomposed by ice-water and acidified with mineral acid to dissolve lithium and aluminum salts. Less frequently sodium hydroxide is used for this purpose. Yields of alcohols are frequently quantitative [83,1059]. Lactones afford glycols (diols) [575]. 

Other hydrides used for the conversion of esters to alcohols are magnesium aluminum hydride in tetrahydrofuran [89, 577] and magnesium bromohydride prepared by decomposition of ethylmagnesium bromide at 235° for 2.5 hours at 0.5mm [7055]. They do not offer special advantages (the latter giving only 35% yield of benzyl alcohols from ethyl benzoate). 

Iron and acetic or dilute hydrochloric acid can be safely used for the reduction of nitro group to an amino group in nitro esters. The problem arises when a nitro ester is to be reduced to a nitro alcohol. Nitro groups are not inert toward the best reagents for the reduction of esters to alcohols, complex hydrides. However the rate of reduction of a nitro group by lithium... 

REDUCTION WITH BORANE IN SITU Reduction of Esters to Alcohols [738]... 

Hydride reduction of esters to alcohols involves elimination steps, in addition to hydride transfer. 

Arene(tricarbonyl)chromium complexes, 19 Nickel boride, 197 to trans-alkenes Chromium(II) sulfate, 84 of anhydrides to lactones Tetrachlorotris[bis(l,4-diphenyl-phosphine)butane]diruthenium, 288 of aromatic rings Palladium catalysts, 230 Raney nickel, 265 Sodium borohydride-1,3-Dicyano-benzene, 279 of aryl halides to arenes Palladium on carbon, 230 of benzyl ethers to alcohols Palladium catalysts, 230 of carboxylic acids to aldehydes Vilsmeier reagent, 341 of epoxides to alcohols Samarium(II) iodide, 270 Sodium hydride-Sodium /-amyloxide-Nickel(II) chloride, 281 Sodium hydride-Sodium /-amyloxide-Zinc chloride, 281 of esters to alcohols Sodium borohydride, 278 of imines and related compounds Arene(tricarbonyl)chromium complexes, 19... 

Feng, J.C., Liu, B., Dai, L., Yang, X.T. and Tu, S.J., Microwave assisted solid reaction reduction of esters to alcohols by potassium boro hydride-lithium chloride, Synth. Commun., 2001, 31, 1875-1877. 

These two steps involve fairly standard procedures. LiAlH4 is a widespread reagent for the reduction of esters to alcohols. 

Alcohols from esters. The major problem is reaction selectivity. Paraffin by-product in alcohol results if the catalyst activity is too high. Yet the reduction of esters to alcohols is a difficult reaction. Copper chromite catalyst, 3000-5000 psig hydrogen, and a temperature of 270-300°C are required for the reduction. An alternate catalyst is CuO/ZnO, which is used for methyl ester reduction only. Hydrogen solubility in alcohol is limiting. 

The rate law for the hydrogenation of esters to alcohols shows a dependence on the square of the hydrogen pressure. 

The reaction of esters with sodium in ethanol is referred to as the Bouveault-Blanc reaction. Prior to the discovery of complex metal hydrides, this reaction was the only method for the reduction of esters to alcohols. The diesters shown in Figure 17.59 produce a diol in this way. 

H. Adkins, Catalytic Hydrogenation of Esters to Alcohols, Org. React. 1954, 8, 1-27. 

The procedure as given is generally applicable for the reduction of esters to alcohols in excellent yields. When preparing the solid normal saturated alcohols, the procedure may be modified, if desired, to permit the recovery of the acid from the unreduced ester. After the alkali is removed the alcohol layer is washed with two successive portions of 20 per cent salt solution which are discarded. Neither the strong alkali nor the salt solutions remove an appreciable amount of organic acid. A solution of 50 g. of calcium chloride in 150 cc. of water is added to the butyl alcohol solution, the mixture is steam-distilled until the butyl alcohol is removed, and the flask and contents are allowed to cool. A hole is made in the cake of solid alcohol and the water layer removed. Two liters of toluene is added and the flask warmed and shaken until the alcohol dissolves and only fine crystals of the calcium salt of the unreduced acid remain. The solution is cooled to 350 and filtered with suction. The calcium soap is removed from the filter, warmed with about 500 cc. of toluene, cooled, filtered, and washed with a little more toluene. The combined toluene solutions may be concentrated and the alcohol crystallized, or the toluene may be completely distilled and the residue vacuum distilled. The insoluble calcium... 

Adkins H (1954) Catalytic hydrogenation of esters to alcohols In Adams R (ed) Organic reactions, Vol VIII, Wiley, New York 9... 

An alternate procedure involves the precipitation of mixed copper and chromium hydroxides from a solution of chromium nitrate and copper nitrate by the addition of an sodium bicarbonate and then heating the precipitate to 300°-500°C.30 In this procedure, the copperchromium ratio can be varied over a wide range. A ratio between four and eight was optimum for use in the hydrogenation of esters to alcohols (Eqn. 13.6).30 A related Zn-CrO catalyst prepared by the decomposition of precipitated zinc-copper hydroxides was effective in the hydrogenation of unsaturated esters to unsaturated alcohols (Eqn. 13.7). 0 The presence of a small amount of alumina increased catalyst activity and selectivity. Some of these catalysts, however, tend to become colloidal on use so they can present separation problems. O... 

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