Microwave-assisted reductions

This transformation can also be carried out under solvent-free conditions in a domestic oven using acidic alumina and ammoniiun acetate, with or without a primary amine, to give 2,4,5-trisubstituted or 1,2,4,5-tetrasubstituted imidazoles, respectively (Scheme 15A) [69]. The automated microwave-assisted synthesis of a library of 2,4,5-triarylimidazoles from the corresponding keto-oxime has been carried out by irradiation at 200 ° C in acetic acid in the presence of ammonium acetate (Scheme 15B) [70]. Under these conditions, thermally induced in situ N - O reduction occurs upon microwave irradiation, to give a diverse set of trisubstituted imidazoles in moderate yield. Parallel synthesis of a 24-membered library of substituted 4(5)-sulfanyl-lff-imidazoles 40 has been achieved by adding an alkyl bromide and base to the reaction of a 2-oxo-thioacetamide, aldehyde and ammonium acetate (Scheme 15C) [71]. Under microwave-assisted conditions, library generation time was dramatically re-... 

A one-pot synthesis of thiohydantoins has been developed using microwave heating [72]. A small subset of p-substituted benzaldehydes, prepared in situ from p-bromobenzaldehyde by microwave-assisted Suzuki or Negishi reactions, was reacted in one pot by reductive amination followed by cyclization with a thioisocyanate catalyzed by polystyrene-bound dimethyl-aminopyridine (PS-DMAP) or triethylamine, all carried out under microwave irradiation, to give the thiohydantoin products in up to 68% isolated yield (Scheme 16). 

The N-substituted aminoacids required could be prepared by microwave-assisted reductive amination of aminoacid methyl esters with aldehydes, and although in the Westman report soluble NaBH(OAc)3 was used to perform this step, other reports have shown how this transformation can be performed in using polymer-supported borohydrides (such as polymer-supported cyanoborohydride) under microwave irradiation [90]. An additional point of diversity could be inserted by use of a palladium-catalyzed reaction if suitably substituted aldehydes had been used. Again, these transformations might eventually be accomplished using supported palladium catalysts under microwave irradiation, as reported by several groups [91-93]. 

Further applications of microwave-assisted reductive aminations are shown in Schemes 6.150 and 6.151. In the example highlighted in Scheme 6.150, Baran and... 

For the solution-phase preparation of functionalized tropanylidenes, the authors simply dispensed solutions of the bromo N-H precursor in 1,2-dichloroethane (DCE) into a set of microwave vials, added the aldehydes (3 equivalents) and a solution of sodium triacetoxy borohydride in dimethylformamide (2 equivalents), and subjected the mixtures to microwave irradiation for 6 min at 120 °C. Quenching the reductive amination with water and subsequent concentration allowed a microwave-assisted Suzuki reaction (Section 6.1.2) to be performed directly on the crude products [295]. 

Primary amino methylene substituents were introduced by a sequence of cya-nodehalogenation and subsequent reduction of the resulting nitrile with borane dimethyl sulfide. To incorporate tertiary aminomethylene substituents into the 2-pyri-done framework, a microwave-assisted Mannich reaction using preformed iminium salts proved to be effective. 

In a closely related study, Tung and Sun discussed the microwave-assisted liquid-phase synthesis of chiral quinoxalines [80], Various L-a-amino acid methyl ester hydrochlorides were coupled to MeOPEG-bound ortho-fluoronitrobenzene by the aforementioned ipso-fluoro displacement method. Reduction under microwave irradiation resulted in spontaneous synchronous intramolecular cyclization to the corresponding l,2,3,4-tetrahydroquinoxalin-2-ones (Scheme 7.71). Retention of the chiral moiety could not be monitored during the reaction, but after release of the desired products it was found that about 10% of the product had undergone racemization. 

Khadilrar, B.M. Bendale, P.M. in Microwave assisted reductive decyanation of alkyldiphenylmethanes, OR 24, presented at the Int. Conf. Microwave Chemistry, Prague, Czech Republic, Sept. 6-11,1998. 

A similar approach, synthesis of a selectively substituted benzotriazole from the corresponding ortfe-nitroaniline, is depicted in Scheme 212. The process starts from a microwave-assisted substitution of the fluorine atom in 4-fluoro-3-nitrobenzonitrile 1270 by isopropylamine to give ortfo-nitroaniline 1271 in 99% yield. Reduction of the nitro group provides ortfo-phenylenediamine 1272 that is directly converted to 5-cyano-l-isopropylbenzotriazole 1273, which is isolated in 83% yield <2006JME1227>. 

Carbon-carbon multiple bonds are most commonly reduced to saturated hydro carbons by hydrogenation or by other methods, such as the use of hydrides. While a large number of alkenes have been reduced under microwave irradiation, surprisingly little work has been published on microwave-assisted reduction of alkynes. 

Alcohols are easily accessible by reduction of carbonyl compounds, such as aldehydes, ketones or carboxylic acid derivatives. While aldehydes, ketones and esters have been frequently used in microwave-assisted reductions, there have been no reports about the use of microwave technology in the reduction of nitriles or amides. 

A study of the influence of the nature of the solid support showed that silica, celite, cellulose or magnesium sulphate in combination with borohydride can also be used successfully in the microwave-assisted reduction of carbonyl compounds. The choice of the solid support has been reported to influence the chemoselectivity of the reduction of chalcone. Under optimised conditions the reduction of the alkene can be suppressed using borohydride on silica, whereas the use of cellulose as solid support seems to favour C=C reduction (Scheme 4.11 )27. 

Carbonyl)chlorohydridotris(triphenylphosphine)ruthenium(II) was used as a catalyst in the transfer hydrogenation of benzaldehyde with formic acid as a hydrogen source. Under these conditions, the reduction ofbenzaldehyde to benzyl alcohol is accompanied by esterification of the alcohol with the excess of formic acid to provide benzyl formate (Scheme 4.16). In this microwave-assisted reaction, the catalyst displayed improved turnover rates compared to the thermal reaction (280 vs. 6700 turnovers/h), thus leading to shorter reaction times36. 

Microwave-assisted stepwise imine formation and subsequent reduction with NaBH4 were also used as the key steps in the synthesis of ephedrine from L-phenylacetylcarbinol. The reactions were performed on a multigram scale in a domestic microwave oven to provide the product in satisfactory yield within a total reaction time of 19 min (Scheme 4.27)49. 

Formation of the imine and subsequent reduction can often be achieved in one pot . Thus, a microwave-assisted reductive amination-cyclisation domino reaction was used as the key step in the synthesis of perhydrocyclo-penta[ij]quinolizines from 1,5,9-triketones. This type of heterocycle is an important structural element in a series of alkaloids. The reaction of the triketone with ammonium formate in PEG-200 was performed within 1 min using microwave irradiation of370 W in a domestic microwave oven. Amixture oftwo ofthree possible stereoisomers was obtained in 87% overall yield (Scheme 4.29)52. 

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