Potassium borohydride

Potassium borohydride. Potassium borohydride is similar in properties and reactions to sodium borohydride, and, like it, is used as a reducing agent for removing aldehydes, ketones and organic peroxides. It is non-hygroscopic and can be used in water, ethanol, methanol or water-alcohol mixtures, provided some alkali is added to minimise decomposition, but it is somewhat less soluble than sodium borohydride in most solvents. For example, its solubility in water at 25° is 19g per 100ml of water (compare sodium borohydride, 55g). 

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Lithium borohydride is a more powerful reducing agent than sodium borohydride, but not as powerful as lithium aluminum hydride (Table 6). In contrast to sodium borohydride, the lithium salt, ia general, reduces esters to the corresponding primary alcohol ia refluxing ethers. An equimolar mixture of sodium or potassium borohydride and a lithium haUde can also be used for this purpose (21,22). 

Sodium borohydride and potassium borohydride [13762-51 -1] are unique among the complex hydrides because they are stable in alkaline solution. Decomposition by hydrolysis is slow in water, but is accelerated by increasing acidity or temperature. 

The process is shown schematically ia Figure 1, which also shows the conversion to potassium borohydride. Commercial NaBH is97 + % pure yields are better than 90%. Other processes for manufactuting NaBH have been described (27,28), but are not commercially important. 

Economic Jispects. Sodium borohydride is produced ia large quantities mainly as powder and stabilized water solution. Potassium borohydride powder is produced ia lesser amounts. Commercial quantities of sodium borohydride powder sell for ca 55/kg (1992 price) the 12% solution ia caustic soda is priced at ca 47/kg of contaiaed NaBH. ... 

Other Borohydrides. Potassium borohydride was formerly used in color reversal development of photographic film and was preferred over sodium borohydride because of its much lower hygroscopicity. Because other borohydrides are made from sodium borohydride, they are correspondingly more expensive. Generally their reducing properties are not sufficiently different to warrant the added cost. Zinc borohydride [17611-70-0] Zn(BH 2> however, has found many appHcations in stereoselective reductions. It is less basic than NaBH, but is not commercially available owing to poor thermal stabihty. It is usually prepared on site in an ether solvent. Zinc borohydride was initially appHed to stereoselective ketone reductions, especially in prostaglandin syntheses (36), and later to aldehydes, acid haHdes, and esters (37). 

Potassium borohydride [13762-51-1] M 53.9, m -500°(dec). Crystd from liquid ammonia. 

Potassium borohydride (KBH4) Very slow Very slow... 

Semicarbazones are used as protecting groups as a consequence of their stability to reducing agents such as potassium borohydride, sodium boro-hydride and lithium borohydride. Semicarbazones are cleaved by strong acids and by heating in acetic anhydride-pyridine. " ... 

Studies of reductions with metal hydndes have concentrated on improvements in selectivity or conditions Replacement of the usual lithium aluminum hydnde-ether combination with potassium borohydride-methanol results m high yields of alcohol from ester [76] and less hazard [77] (equation 62) Reduction of a... 

The reduction of iminium salts can be achieved by a variety of methods. Some of the methods have been studied primarily on quaternary salts of aromatic bases, but the results can be extrapolated to simple iminium salts in most cases. The reagents available for reduction of iminium salts are sodium amalgam (52), sodium hydrosulfite (5i), potassium borohydride (54,55), sodium borohydride (56,57), lithium aluminum hydride (5 ), formic acid (59-63), H, and platinum oxide (47). The scope and mechanism of reduction of nitrogen heterocycles with complex metal hydrides has been recently reviewed (5,64), and will be presented here only briefly. 

The tosylhydrazone is prepared from the carbonyl compound and then reduced with lithium aluminium hydride, sodium borohydride or potassium borohydride. In this way D-glucose tosylhydrazone was converted into crystalline 1-deoxyglucitol by reduction with potassium borohydride... 

Potassium borohydride reduction of runanine (17) yielded dihydro-runanine (24), the H-NMR spectrum of which (Table II) exhibited a triplet (64.25), the proton bearing the hydroxyl group coupling with those of C-5 (35). The optical activity of runanine (17), [a]D —400°, was similar to that of hasubanonine (5), [a]D —214° (3) therefore, it was concluded that the ethylamine linkage must have the same configuration as hasubanonine [C-13 (R) and C-14 (S)]. From these results, structure 17 was proposed for runanine (35) however, no application of mass spectral data to the structure elucidation was presented (35). 

Colloidal metals are usually prepared by reduction of a salt with a reducing agent, such as phosphorus, acetone, tannin, or carbon monoxide. Platinum metals can also be prepared as finely divided very active blacks by reducing the metal salt in an aqueous solution of sodium or potassium borohydride. 

Nickel borides are usually prepared by reduction of nickel salts with sodium or potassium borohydride. Two types are used. PI nickel boride is prepared by the reaction between aqueous solutions of nickel salts and a borohy-... 

Ye et al. reported that the reduction of 2,4-dichlorophenyl-2-chloroethanone 1 with potassium borohydride in dimethylformamide to give 90% a-chloromethyl-2,4-dichlorobenzyl alcohol 2. Alkylation of imidazole with compound 2 in dimethyl formamide in the presence of sodium hydroxide and triethylbenzyl ammonium chloride, gave l-(2,4-dichlorophenyl-2-imidazolyl)ethanol 3 and etherification of 3 with 2,4-dichlorobenzyl chloride under the same condition, 62% yield of miconazole [9]. 

The MPT model was also reported to apply in a number other electroless metal deposition systems, including a) electroless Ni from a citrate-complexant solution with dimethylamine borane (DMAB) reductant, operated at pH = 7 (pH adjusted using NH4OH) and at a temperature (T) = 40 °C [33] b) electroless Au deposition [34] from a KAu(CN)2 containing solution, which utilized potassium borohydride... 

It is noteworthy to add that potassium borohydride and trimethyllead chloride, upon reaction in liquid ammonia, first produce trimethyllead borohydride which, on distillation, gives H3B NH3, ammonia and trimethylplumbane245 ... 

The importance of reactions with complex, metal hydrides in carbohydrate chemistry is well documented by a vast number of publications that deal mainly with reduction of carbonyl groups, N- and O-acyl functions, lactones, azides, and epoxides, as well as with reactions of sulfonic esters. With rare exceptions, lithium aluminum hydride and lithium, sodium, or potassium borohydride are the... 

Potassium bases, 20 604-605 Potassium benzoate, 3 632t, 633-634, 635 Potassium P-alumina, 2 406t Potassium bicarbonate, 20 632 Potassium bifluoride, 11 838 Potassium borohydride, 13 615, 620 production process for, 13 617 Potassium bromate, 4 334-335 20 630 Potassium bromide, 20 630... 

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