Reactions Involving Reductive Steps

Carbonylation of acetic acid to higher carboxylic acids can occur in presence of ruthenium/iodide catalysts. The reaction involves reduction and several carbonylation steps. The overall reaction may be written as follows ... 

The last sequence of reactions in the biosynthesis of choles-terol involves approximately 20 enzymatic steps, starting with lanosterol. In mammals the major route involves a series of double-bond reductions and demethylations (fig. 20.10). The sequence of reactions involves reduction of the A24 double bond, the oxidation and removal of the 14a methyl group followed by the oxidation and removal of the two methyl groups at position 4 in the sterol. The final reaction is a reduction of the A7 double bond in 7-dehydro-cholesterol. An alternative pathway from lanosterol to cholesterol also exists. The enzymes involved in the transformation of lanosterol to cholesterol are all located on the endoplasmic reticulum. 

Tandem Reactions Involving Reductive Organometallic Steps... 

Tellurium and cadmium Electrodeposition of Te has been reported [33] in basic chloroaluminates the element is formed from the [TeCl ] complex in one four-electron reduction step, furthermore, metallic Te can be reduced to Te species. Electrodeposition of the element on glassy carbon involves three-dimensional nucleation. A systematic study of the electrodeposition in different ionic liquids would be of interest because - as with InSb - a defined codeposition with cadmium could produce the direct semiconductor CdTe. Although this semiconductor can be deposited from aqueous solutions in a layer-by-layer process [34], variation of the temperature over a wide range would be interesting since the grain sizes and the kinetics of the reaction would be influenced. 

The transmetallation reaction involves the transfer of the organic group from an organometallic species to a Pd(II) species and produces a trails Pd(II) species. Isomerization from the trans arrangement to a cis one is necessary prior to the reductive elimination step. Reductive elimination yields the coupled product and regenerates the transition metal catalyst. Because the reductive elimination is very fast, competing reactions leading to by-products are usually not observed. 

The possible mechanism for the reactions involving stoichiometric amount of preformed Ni(0) complexes is shown in Fig. 9.8. The first step of the mechanism involves the oxidative addition of aryl halides to Ni(0) to form aryl Ni(II) halides. Disproportion of two aryl Ni(II) species leads to a diaryl Ni(II) species and a Ni(II) halide. This diaryl Ni(II) species undergoes rapid reductive elimination to form the biaryl product. The generated Ni(0) species can reenter the catalytic cycle. 

The platinum metals are valuable by-products from the extraction of common metals such as copper and nickel. The anodic residue that results from copper refining is a particularly important source. The chemistry involved in their purification is too complicated to describe here, except to note that the final reduction step involves reaction of molecular hydrogen with metal halide complexes. 

A similar sequence that takes place under milder conditions uses 4-nitrophthalimides as the protecting group and /V-melhylhydrazine for deprotection.234 Reduction by NaBH4 in aqueous ethanol is an alternative method for deprotection of phthalimides. This reaction involves formation of an o-hydroxybenzamide in the reduction step. Intramolecular displacement of the amino group follows.235... 

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