Reduction by hydrogen atom donors

Reduction by hydrogen atom donors involves free radical intermediates and usually proceeds by chain mechanisms. Tri-n-butylstannane is the most prominent example of this type of reducing agent. Other synthetically useful hydrogen atom donors include hypophosphorous acid, dialkyl phosphites, and tris-(trimethylsilyl)silane. The processes that have found most synthetic application are reductive replacement of halogen and various types of thiono esters. 

Reduction by hydrogen-atom donors necessarily involves intermediates with unpaired electrons. Tri-n -butyltin hydride is the most important example of this type of reducing agent. It is able to reductively replace halogen by hydrogen in many types of halogen compounds. Mechanistic studies have indicated a free-radical chain mechanism. The ability of trisubstituted stannanes to function effectively in these... 

It is also essential that competing radical pathways are excluded. The radical intermediates should therefore be relatively persistent. This is the case here, because tertiary radicals are relatively slowly trapped by hydrogen atom donors, e.g., THF, which is usually applied as solvent in titanocene-mediated or -catalyzed reactions, or a second equivalent of Cp2TiCl. Flowever, in the absence of other pathways this reduction, which was followed by a -hydride elimination, was observed [75,76]. Our results with 10 are summarized in Table 5. 

Novi and coworkers124 have shown that the reaction of 2,3-bis(phenylsulfonyl)-l,4-dimethylbenzene with sodium benzenethiolate in dimethyl sulfoxide yields a mixture of substitution, cyclization and reduction products when subjected at room temperature to photostimulation by a sunlamp. These authors proposed a double chain mechanism (Scheme 17) to explain the observed products. This mechanism is supported by a set of carefully designed experiments125. The addition of PhSH, a good hydrogen atom donor, increases the percent of reduction products. When the substitution process can effectively compete with the two other processes, the increase in the relative yield of substitution (e.g., with five molar equivalents of benzenethiolate) parallels the decrease in those of both cyclization and reduction products. This suggests a common intermediate leading to the three different products. This intermediate could either be the radical anion formed by electron transfer to 2,3-bis(phenylsulfonyl)-l,4-dimethylbenzene or the a radical formed... 

Scheme 5.9 illustrates some of the conditions that have been developed for the reductive deoxygenation of alcohols. Entries 1 to 4 illustrate the most commonly used methods for generation of thiono esters and their reduction by tri-M-butylstannane. These include formation of thiono carbonates (Entry 1), xanthates (Entry 2), and thiono imidazolides (Entries 3 and 4). Entry 5 is an example of use of dimethyl phosphite as the hydrogen donor. Entry 6 uses r .s-(trimethylsilyl)silane as the hydrogen atom donor. 

Esters of (V-hydroxyphthalimide can also be used for decarboxylation. Photolysis in the presence of an electron donor and a hydrogen atom donor leads to decarboxylation. Carboxyl radicals are formed by one-electron reduction of the phthalimide ring. 

An alternative method for reductive dediazonation involves in situ diazotization by an alkyl nitrite in dimethylformamide.96 This reduction is a chain reaction with the solvent acting as the hydrogen atom donor. 

Alkanes are formed when the intermediate radical abstracts hydrogen from solvent faster than it is oxidized to the carbocation. This reductive step is promoted by good hydrogen-donor solvents. It is also more prevalent for primary alkyl radicals because of the higher activation energy associated with formation of primary carbocations. The most favorable conditions for alkane formation involve photochemical decomposition of the carboxylic acid in chloroform, which is a relatively good hydrogen atom donor. 

The tin hydride method suffers from one major disadvantage, namely the efficiency of the reagent as a hydrogen atom donor. For successful synthesis, alkenes have to be reactive enough, otherwise direct reduction of the starting precursor becomes a considerable side reaction. In practice, the yields are increased by slow addition of a solution of tin hydride and a radical initiator into the reaction mixture containing an excess of alkene. However, a delicate balance must be maintained. If a large excess of olefin is used, polymerization can compete. 2,2-Azobisisobutyronitrile is the most commonly employed initiator, with a half-life time for unimolecular scission of 1 h at 80°C. 

An important aspect of enzymatic oxidation-reduction reactions involves the transfer of hydrogen atoms. This transfer is mediated by coenzymes (substances that act together with enzymes) nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (NAD) and nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide phosphate (NADP). These two species pick up H atoms to produce NADH and NADPH, respectively, both of which can function as hydrogen atom donors. Another pair of species involved in oxidation-reduction processes by hydrogen atom transfer consists of flavin adenine triphosphate (FAD) and its hydrogenated form FADH2. The structural formulas of NAD and its cationic form, NAD+, are shown in Figure 4.7. 

Computational studies by Rablen have suggested that ligands with 7i-donor abilities are much more efficient in the reduction of the B-H BDE [8]. On the basis of this finding, it has recently been demonstrated that complexes of NHCs and borane (NHC boranes) constitute a very interesting new class of radical hydrogen atom donors. Two of the first examples, 1 and 2, together with their calculated BDEs, are shown in Scheme 1. 

To study the effects of water and other solvents on titanocene(III)-mediated processes we used the transannular cychzation of epoxygerma-crolides as a model reaction [47]. Thus, we found that in anhydrous, non-halogenated solvents such as THF the reaction led selectively to decalins with an exocyclic double bond (Scheme 5). In an aqueous medium (THF/H2O), however, the characteristic lime green color of Cp2TiCl turned deep blue and the main product was a reduced decalin (Scheme 5). Under these conditions, water (either H2O or D2O) proved to be more effective than the toxic and expensive hydrogen-atom donor 1,4-cyclohexadiene for the reduction of tertiary radicals [47]. This is an unusual phenomenon in free-radical chemistry [48-50], subsequently exploited by us for the selective reduction of aromatic ketones as we shall see later [51,52]. 

In the absence of the activating second carbonyl functionality, it is necessary to use more ingenious methods to produce the same net effect. These procedures more often than not involve radical reactions. Among them is the thermolysis of tert-butyl esters of peroxyacids 437, which are readily synthesized in a standard esterification of tert-butyl hydroperoxide with an acid chloride. Decarboxylation proceeds via an initial homolytic cleavage of the 0-0 bond, elimination of CO2, and reduction of the incipient alkyl radical by an added hydrogen atom donor such as 438 (Scheme 2.143). Examples showing the exceptional synthetic importance of this decarboxylation procedure will be presented later. 

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