Organosilicon hydrides, 593

Consideration of the nature of the Si-H bond provides insight into the chemical behavior of organosilicon hydrides. Comparison of the bond strengths as... 

It is necessary for the intermediate cation or complex to bear considerable car-bocationic character at the carbon center in order for effective hydride transfer to be possible. By carbocationic character it is meant that there must be a substantial deficiency of electron density at carbon or reduction will not occur. For example, the sesquixanthydryl cation l,26 dioxolenium ion 2,27 boron-complexed imines 3, and O-alkylated amide 4,28 are apparently all too stable to receive hydride from organosilicon hydrides and are reportedly not reduced (although the behavior of 1 is in dispute29). This lack of reactivity by very stable cations toward organosilicon hydrides can enhance selectivity in ionic reductions. 

Organosilicon hydride reductions of preformed stable carbocations such as triphenylmethyl (trityl) tetrafluoroborate and hexafluoroantimonate salts are rapid... 

Uncertainties in understanding the exact mechanistic details of these reactions are sure to stimulate continued work to define the nature of trivalent silicon cations in ionic reductions by organosilicon hydrides. 

It is well known that strong electrophiles such as carbocations are reduced by organosilicon hydrides (Eq. 1).3,70,71 On the other hand, simple mixtures of organosilicon hydrides and compounds with weakly electrophilic carbon centers such as ketones and aldehydes are normally unreactive unless the electrophilicity of the carbon center is enhanced by complexation of the carbonyl oxygen with Brpnsted acids3,70 73 or certain Lewis acids (Eq. 2).1,70,71,74,75 Using these acids, hydride transfer from the silicon center to carbon may then occur to give either alcohol-related or hydrocarbon products. 

Alternatively, unreactive mixtures of organosilicon hydrides and carbonyl compounds react by hydride transfer from the silicon center to the carbon center when certain nucleophilic species with a high affinity for silicon are added to the mixture.76 94 This outcome likely results from the formation of valence-expanded, pentacoordinate hydrosilanide anion reaction intermediates that have stronger hydride-donating capabilities than their tetravalent precursors (Eq. 6).22,95 101... 

Alcohols to Alkanes. Many alcohols are converted directly into hydrocarbons when treated with acid in the presence of organosilicon hydrides (Eq. 7). The mechanism normally follows the pathway shown in Eq. 1. 

Secondary Alkyl Alcohols. Treatment of secondary alkyl alcohols with tri-fluoroacetic acid and organosilicon hydrides results only in the formation of the trifluoroacetate esters no reduction is reported to occur.1,2 Reduction of secondary alkyl alcohols does take place when very strong Lewis acids such as boron trifluoride126 129 or aluminum chloride136,146 are used. For example, treatment of a dichlo-romethane solution of 2-adamantanol and triethy lsilane (1.3 equivalents) with boron trifluoride gas at room temperature for 15 minutes gives upon workup a 98% yield of the hydrocarbon adamantane along with fluorotriethylsilane (Eq. 10).129... 

Aluminum chloride, used either as a stoichiometric reagent or as a catalyst with gaseous hydrogen chloride, may be used to promote silane reductions of secondary alkyl alcohols that otherwise resist reduction by the action of weaker acids.136 For example, cyclohexanol is not reduced by organosilicon hydrides in the presence of trifluoroacetic acid in dichloromethane, presumably because of the relative instability and difficult formation of the secondary cyclohexyl carbocation. By contrast, treatment of cyclohexanol with an excess of hydrogen chloride gas in the presence of a three-to-four-fold excess of triethylsilane and 1.5 equivalents of aluminum chloride in anhydrous dichloromethane produces 70% of cyclohexane and 7% of methylcyclopentane after a reaction time of 3.5 hours at... 

Tertiary Alkyl Alcohols. Tertiary alkyl alcohols generally undergo facile reduction when treated with acids in the presence of organosilicon hydrides.127,136 This comparative ease of reduction reflects the enhanced stability and ease of formation of tertiary alkyl carbenium ions compared with primary and secondary carbenium ions. Thus, treatment of 1-methylcyclohexanol with mixtures of triethylsilane and aluminum chloride in dichloromethane produces near quantitative yields of methylcyclohexane with or without added hydrogen chloride in as little as 30 minutes at room temperature, in contrast to the more vigorous conditions needed for the reduction of the secondary alcohol cyclohex-anol.136... 

Cyclopropylcarbinols. Treatment of cyclopropylcarbinols 15 (R = Ph, C-C3H5) with trifluoroacetic acid in dichloromethane leads to the rapid formation of ring-opened 4-substituted 3-butenyl-l-trifluoroacetate esters 16 (Eq. 20).130 Cyclopropylcarbinyl trifluoroacetates are not formed. Ring opening is facilitated by phenyl substituents. Addition of organosilicon hydrides to the reaction mixture favors the formation of cyclopropylmethanes 17 and suppresses the formation of the ring-opened esters.130... 

Benzyl Alcohols. Benzyl alcohols of nearly all kinds undergo reduction when treated with acid in the presence of organosilicon hydrides. The most obvious exception to this is the behavior of benzyl alcohol itself. It resists reduction by the action of trifluoroacetic acid and triethylsilane, even after extended reaction times.26 Reducing systems consisting of triethylsilane and sulfuric acid/acetic acid or p-toluenesullonic acid/acetic acid mixtures also fail to reduce benzyl alcohol to toluene.134 As previously mentioned, substitution of boron trifluoride for trifluoroacetic acid results in the formation of modest yields of toluene, but only when a very large excess of the silane is used in order to capture the benzyl cation intermediate and suppress Friedel-Crafts oligomerization processes.129,143... 

Treatment of either the cis or trans isomer of 4-/m-bu(yl-1 -phenylcyclohexanol with trifluoroacetic acid and one of a variety of organosilicon hydrides in dichloromethane yields a mixture of cis- and trans-4-tert-butyl-l-phenyl-cyclohexane and the elimination product, 4-/er/-butyl -1 -phenylcyclohexene... 

Reduction of either the exo or endo isomer of 2-phenyl-2-norbornanol with trifluoroacetic acid and triethylsilane, triphenylsilane, or phenylsilane in dichloro-methane gives endo-2-phenylnorbomane quantitatively (Eq. 24).164 The stereospecific formation of only the endo-hydrocarbon can be understood on the basis that only exo approach by organosilicon hydride toward the 2-phenylnorbornyl cation intermediate is kinetically competitive for product formation.164... 

In some instances, treatment of polyfunctional benzylic alcohols with acid in the presence of organosilicon hydrides causes multiple functional group transformations to occur simultaneously. This phenomenon is illustrated by the reduction of the secondary benzylic alcohol function and concomitant loss of the methoxymethyl protecting group of 2-(l-hydroxydecyl)-5-methoxy-l-(methoxy-methyleneoxy)naphthalene upon treatment with Et3SiH/TFA in dichloromethane (Eq. 26).167... 

Studies reveal an advantage to using boron trifluoride in dichloromethane at reduced temperatures instead of Brpnsted acids in the organosilicon hydride reductions of a number of dialkylbenzyl alcohols.126 129 The use of Brpnsted acids may be unsatisfactory under conditions in which the starting alcohol suffers rapid skeletal rearrangement and elimination upon contact with the acid, and also in which the alcohol does not yield a sufficient concentration of the intermediate carbocation when treated with protic acids.126... 

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