Potassium Birch reduction

Krapcho and Bothner-By made additional findings that are valuable ii understanding the Birch reduction. The relative rates of reduction o benzene by lithium, sodium and potassium (ethanol as proton donor) wer found to be approximately 180 1 0.5. In addition, they found that ben zene is reduced fourteen times more rapidly when methanol is the protoi donor than when /-butyl alcohol is used. Finally, the relative rates of reduc tion of various simple aromatic compounds by lithium were deteiTnined these data are given in Table 1-2. Taken together, the above data sho that the rate of a given Birch reduction is strikingly controlled by the meta... 

Various other observations of Krapcho and Bothner-By are accommodated by the radical-anion reduction mechanism. Thus, the position of the initial equilibrium [Eq. (3g)] would be expected to be determined by the reduction potential of the metal and the oxidation potential of the aromatic compound. In spite of small differences in their reduction potentials, lithium, sodium, potassium and calcium afford sufficiently high concentrations of the radical-anion so that all four metals can effect Birch reductions. The few compounds for which comparative data are available are reduced in nearly identical yields by the four metals. However, lithium ion can coordinate strongly with the radical-anion, unlike sodium and potassium ions, and consequently equilibrium (3g) for lithium is shifted considerably... 

A major advance in the art of effecting Birch reductions was the discovery by Wilds and Nelson that lithium reduced aromatic steroids much more efficiently than had hitherto been possible with sodium or potassium. The superiority originally was attributed to the somewhat higher reduction potential of lithium as compared to the other alkali metals. Later work showed that the following explanation is more probable. ... 

TABLE 1-5 Effect of Iron on the Birch Reduction of Estradiol 3-Methyl Ether by Lithium, Sodium and Potassium" ... 

The crude ketal from the Birch reduction is dissolved in a mixture of 700 ml ethyl acetate, 1260 ml absolute ethanol and 31.5 ml water. To this solution is added 198 ml of 0.01 Mp-toluenesulfonic acid in absolute ethanol. (Methanol cannot be substituted for the ethanol nor can denatured ethanol containing methanol be used. In the presence of methanol, the diethyl ketal forms the mixed methyl ethyl ketal at C-17 and this mixed ketal hydrolyzes at a much slower rate than does the diethyl ketal.) The mixture is stirred at room temperature under nitrogen for 10 min and 56 ml of 10% potassium bicarbonate solution is added to neutralize the toluenesulfonic acid. The organic solvents are removed in a rotary vacuum evaporator and water is added as the organic solvents distill. When all of the organic solvents have been distilled, the granular precipitate of 1,4-dihydroestrone 3- methyl ether is collected on a filter and washed well with cold water. The solid is sucked dry and is dissolved in 800 ml of methyl ethyl ketone. To this solution is added 1600 ml of 1 1 methanol-water mixture and the resulting mixture is cooled in an ice bath for 1 hr. The solid is collected, rinsed with cold methanol-water (1 1), air-dried, and finally dried in a vacuum oven at 60° yield, 71.5 g (81 % based on estrone methyl ether actually carried into the Birch reduction as the ketal) mp 139-141°, reported mp 141-141.5°. The material has an enol ether assay of 99%, a residual aromatics content of 0.6% and a 19-norandrost-5(10)-ene-3,17-dione content of 0.5% (from hydrolysis of the 3-enol ether). It contains less than 0.1 % of 17-ol and only a trace of ketal formed by addition of ethanol to the 3-enol ether. 

A solution of lithium, sodium, potassium or calcium in liquid ammonia can reduce a wide variety of unsaturated groups. Thus when aromatic rings are reduced by such metals in liquid ammonia, non-conjugated cyclohexadienes are produced. The reaction is called Birch reduction. 

At the outset of our studies of the reactivity of I and II, it was necessary to investigate claims that tertiary henzamides were inappropriate substrates for the Birch reduction. It had been reported that reduction of A,A-dimethylbenzamide with sodium in NH3 in the presence of tert-butyl alcohol gave benzaldehyde and a benzaldehyde-ammonia adduct. We formd that the competition between reduction of the amide group and the aromatic ring was strongly dependent on reaction variables, such as the alkali metal (type and quantity), the availability of a proton source more acidic than NH3, and reaction temperature. Reduction with potassium in NH3-THF solution at —78 °C in the presence of 1 equiv. of tert-butyl alcohol gave the cyclohexa-1,4-diene 2 in 92% isolated yield (Scheme 3). At the other extreme, reduction with lithium in NH3-THF at —33 °C in the absence of tert-butyl alcohol gave benzaldehyde and benzyl alcohol as major reaction products. ... 

Because dianion formation appears to be more important when lithium rather than potassium is used, many of the Birch reductions and reduction-alkylations of I and II that have been developed utilize potassium as the reducing metal. Piperylene is added prior to the alkylation reagent to consume any remaining metal and thereby prevent reduction of the alkylation reagent. In the event that the alkylation reagent is unstable to strong bases (e.g. homoallylic and arylethyl halides) LiBr is added to reduce the basicity of the reaction medium. 

As early as 1969, Pedersen was intrigued by the intense blue colour observed upon dissolution of small quantities of sodium or potassium metal in coordinating organic solvents in the presence of crown ethers. Indeed, the history of alkali metal (as opposed to metal cation) solution chemistry may be traced back to an 1808 entry in the notebook of Sir Humphry Davy, concerning the blue or bronze colour of potassium-liquid ammonia solutions. This blue colour is attributed to the presence of a solvated form of free electrons. It is also observed upon dissolution of sodium metal in liquid ammonia, and is a useful reagent for dissolving metal reductions , such as the selective reduction of arenes to 1,4-dienes (Birch reduction). Alkali metal solutions in the presence of crown ethers and cryptands in etheric solvents are now used extensively in this context. The full characterisation of these intriguing materials had to wait until 1983, however, when the first X-ray crystal structure of an electride salt (a cation with an electron as the counter anion) was obtained by James L. Dye and... 

Nonalkylated 3,4-dehydroprolines 914 were obtained in 76-81% yields by diastereoselective protonation of an enolate resulting from Birch reduction of the A -BOC-pyrrole-2-carboxamide 913 (Equation 223) <1999T12309>. The reaction was quenched by addition of solid ammonium chloride after a reaction time of 1 h. The results using lithium and sodium are similar but the reaction with potassium failed. Remarkably, asymmetric protonation is more selective (de 88-90%) than methylation (de 50%). The selectivity decreases with increasing temperature (de 82% at —30°C). The diastereoselectivity of the reaction was detected by HPLC. 

The partial reduction of arenes can be achieved using the Birch reduction An alkali metal (lithium, sodium or potassium) is dissolved in liquid ammonia in the presence of the arene, an alcohol, such as 2-methylpropan-2-ol tert-buty alcohol) and a co-solvent to assist solubility. 

Schriesheim found a solution of potassium f-butoxide in dimethyl sulfoxide useful as a homogeneous basic medium for study of the rate constants, activation energies, and entropies for the isomerization of olefins. Birch et al. found the reagent useful for the isomerization of (2), the primary product of Birch reduction of an estrogen methyl ether (1), to the conjugated diene (3). 

The Birch reduction is the organic reduction of aromatic rings by sodium in liquid ammonia invented by Arthur Birch. The reaction product is a 1,4-cyclohexadiene. The metal can also be lithium or potassium and the hydrogen atoms are supplied by an alcohol such as ethanol or tertbutanol. Sodium in liquid ammonia gives an intense blue color. 

Silver fluoroborate, AgBF4 [I, 1007, before Silver iododibenzoate]. Mol. wt. 194.70. Preparation.1 Silver oxide (1.0 g.) is dissolved in 45% fluoroboric acid (7.2 g.). Synthesis of a tropone.1 The natural tropone nezukone (4) has been synthesized by addition of dichlorocarbene (CHClj,-potassium r-butoxide) to l-isopropyl-4-methoxycyclohexadiene-1,4 (2), obtained by Birch reduction of the anisole (1). The resulting adduct (3) was treated with silver fluoroborate to give the tropone (4) in... 

Potassium Amtnonia (see aiso Birch reduction. Lithium-Ammonia), 32 Pola iium-/-Amyl alcohol (seeciso other Alkuli inclats-Alcohoh), 277 Pomiium Mcarlwnatc, 253... 

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