Hydrides, complex, reduction

Another possibility for asymmetric reduction is the use of chiral complex hydrides derived from LiAlH. and chiral alcohols, e.g. N-methylephedrine (I. Jacquet, 1974), or 1,4-bis(dimethylamino)butanediol (D. Seebach, 1974). But stereoselectivities are mostly below 50%. At the present time attempts to form chiral alcohols from ketones are less successful than the asymmetric reduction of C = C double bonds via hydroboration or hydrogenation with Wilkinson type catalysts (G. Zweifel, 1963 H.B. Kagan, 1978 see p. 102f.). 

Only two topics are of importance for this section the reduction of pyrazolium salts and 3-pyrazolin-5-ones by complex hydrides, and the nucleophilic photosubstitution of pyrazoles and indazoles. 

Figure 23 Reduction by complex hydrides of pyrazolones, thiopyrazolones, iminopyrazolines and pyrazolium salts...

In most reviews of enamine chemistry the reactions of iminium salts are scattered throughout the review and are consequently not covered in a comprehensive manner. This chapter will be an attempt to look at reactions that, at one stage or another, proceed by nucleophilic addition to the iminium intermediate. The subject of enamines has been reviewed 1-4) and certain aspects of iminium salt chemistry such as reduction of aromatic quaternary salts have been treated in detail (5). Consequently, the reduction of aromatic quaternary salts with complex hydrides will be presented here only briefly. Although the literature (especially 1950-1967) has been checked with care, the author can make no claim to completeness. The... 

There have been only a few examples of reduction of the C=N+ function of catalytic hydrogenation since the reductions with complex hydrides are so easy to do in the laboratory. A possible reduction of an iminium salt 45 to 46 with platinum oxide was reported by McKay et al. (91). A report that platinum oxide reduces 2l tio).jgj yjj.Qqyjp Qjj2idijjjujn perchlorate (25) in quantitative yield to 47 indicates that such reduction should be facile (47). 

Reduction of Iminium Salts with Complex Hydrides... 

Reduction of l-methyl-2-alkyl-.d -pyrroline and l-methyl-2-alkyl-.d -piperideine perchlorates with complex hydrides prepared in situ by partial decomposition of lithium aluminum hydride with the optically active alcohols (—)-menthol and (—)-borneol affords partially optically active l-methyl-2-alkyl pyrrolidines (153, n = 1) and 1-methy 1-2-alkyl piperideines (153, n = 2), respectively (241,242). 

In principle, complex hydrides (NaBHj, LiAlH ) ought to react similarly with 4-pyrones and lead after treatment with Bronsted or Lewis acids to 4-unsubstituted pyrylium salts. This reaction has not been reported the reduction of 2-pyrones with LiAlH4 results in ring opening. " ... 

The presence of water is essential for the success of these reductions. In anhydrous THF, for example, treatment of iV-benzoylimidazole with NaBH4 leads to benzyl benzoate as the main product (73%), along with 19% benzyl alcohol.[33] Other reports, however, describe the conversion of carboxylic acid imidazolides to the corresponding alcohols by complex hydrides in organic solvents. Further alcohols have been synthesized via imidazolides ... 

Bimolecular reductive elimination of metal (or metal complex) hydrides n2 2HCo(CO)4 <-> Co2(CO)8 + H2 12... 

Complex hydrides have been used rather frequently for the conjugate reduction of activated dienes92-95. Just and coworkers92 found that the reduction of a,ft-unsaturated ketene 5,5-acetals with lithium triethylborohydride provided mixtures of 1,4- and 1,6-reduction products which were transformed into enals by treatment with mercuric salts (equation 27). Likewise, tetrahydro-3//-naphthalen-2-ones can be reduced with L-Selectride to the 1,6-reduction products93 -95 this reaction has been utilized in the stereoselective synthesis of several terpenes, e.g. of (/ )-(—)-ligularenolide (equation 28)95. Other methods for the conjugate reduction of acceptor-substituted dienes involve the use of methylcopper/diisobutylaluminum hydride96 and of the Hantzsch ester... 

A useful method for the reductive conversion of elemental tellurium into Te anions employs complex hydrides such as sodium or potassium borohydride and tetraalkyl ammonium borohydride as reducing agents. 

Catalysts suitable specifically for reduction of carbon-oxygen bonds are based on oxides of copper, zinc and chromium Adkins catalysts). The so-called copper chromite (which is not necessarily a stoichiometric compound) is prepared by thermal decomposition of ammonium chromate and copper nitrate [50]. Its activity and stability is improved if barium nitrate is added before the thermal decomposition [57]. Similarly prepared zinc chromite is suitable for reductions of unsaturated acids and esters to unsaturated alcohols [52]. These catalysts are used specifically for reduction of carbonyl- and carboxyl-containing compounds to alcohols. Aldehydes and ketones are reduced at 150-200° and 100-150 atm, whereas esters and acids require temperatures up to 300° and pressures up to 350 atm. Because such conditions require special equipment and because all reductions achievable with copper chromite catalysts can be accomplished by hydrides and complex hydrides the use of Adkins catalyst in the laboratory is very limited. 

The reaction of complex hydrides with carbonyl compounds can be exemplified by the reduction of an aldehyde with lithium aluminum hydride. The reduction is assumed to involve a hydride transfer from a nucleophile -tetrahydroaluminate ion onto the carbonyl carbon as a place of the lowest electron density. The alkoxide ion thus generated complexes the remaining aluminum hydride and forms an alkoxytrihydroaluminate ion. This intermediate reacts with a second molecule of the aldehyde and forms a dialkoxy-dihydroaluminate ion which reacts with the third molecule of the aldehyde and forms a trialkoxyhydroaluminate ion. Finally the fourth molecule of the aldehyde converts the aluminate to the ultimate stage of tetraalkoxyaluminate ion that on contact with water liberates four molecules of an alcohol, aluminum hydroxide and lithium hydroxide. Four molecules of water are needed to hydrolyze the tetraalkoxyaluminate. The individual intermediates really exist and can also be prepared by a reaction of lithium aluminum hydride... 

The mechanism of reduction by boranes and alanes differs somewhat from that of complex hydrides. The main difference is in the entirely different chemical nature of the two types. Whereas complex hydride anions are strong nucleophiles which attack the places of lowest electron density, boranes and alanes are electrophiles and combine with that part of the organic molecule which has a free electron pair [119]. By a hydride transfer alkoxyboranes or... 

Hydrides and complex hydrides tend to approach the molecule of a compound to be reduced from the less hindered side steric approach control). If a relatively uninhibited function is reduced the final stereochemistry is determined by the stability of the product (product development control). In addition, torsional strain in the transition state affects the steric outcomes of the reduction. 

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