Reduction of aldehyde

Reduction of aldehydes to primary alcohols is very easy and can be accomplished by a legion of reagents. The real challenge is to reduce aldehydes containing other functional groups selectively or to reduce the other function in preference to the aldehyde group. 

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Reduction of aldehydes with iron and glacial acetic acid, for example ... 

Clemmensen reduction of aldehydes and ketones. Upon reducing aldehydes or ketones with amalgamated zinc and concentrated hydrochloric acid, the main products are the hydrocarbons (>C=0 —> >CHj), but variable quantities of the secondary alcohols (in the case of ketones) and unsaturated substances are also formed. Examples are ... 

Wolff - Kishner reduction of aldehydes and ketones. Upon heating the hydrazoiie or semicarbazone of an aldehyde or ketone with potassium hydroxide or with sodium ethoxide solution (sealed tube), the corresponding hydrocarbon is obtained ... 

Reduction of Aldehydes, Ketones, and Carboxylic Acid Derivatives... 

We will begin with the reduction of aldehydes and ketones... 

For most laboratory scale reductions of aldehydes and ketones catalytic hydro genation has been replaced by methods based on metal hydride reducing agents The two most common reagents are sodium borohydride and lithium aluminum hydride... 

The mechanism of lithium aluminum hydride reduction of aldehydes and ketones IS analogous to that of sodium borohydride except that the reduction and hydrolysis... 

Sodium cyanoborohydride is remarkably chemoselective. Reduction of aldehydes and ketones are, unlike those with NaBH pH-dependent, and practical reduction rates are achieved at pH 3 to 4. At pH 5—7, imines (>C=N—) are reduced more rapidly than carbonyls. This reactivity permits reductive amination of aldehydes and ketones under very mild conditions (42). 

Addition of sodium dithionite to formaldehyde yields the sodium salt of hydroxymethanesulfinic acid [79-25-4] H0CH2S02Na, which retains the useful reducing character of the sodium dithionite although somewhat attenuated in reactivity. The most important organic chemistry of sodium dithionite involves its use in reducing dyes, eg, anthraquinone vat dyes, sulfur dyes, and indigo, to their soluble leuco forms (see Dyes, anthraquinone). Dithionite can reduce various chromophores that are not reduced by sulfite. Dithionite can be used for the reduction of aldehydes and ketones to alcohols (348). Quantitative studies have been made of the reduction potential of dithionite as a function of pH and the concentration of other salts (349,350). 

The aromatic primary and secondary stibines are readily oxidized by air, but they are considerably more stable than their aHphatic counterparts. Diphenylstibine is a powerful reducing agent, reacting with many acids to Hberate hydrogen (79). It has also been used for the selective reduction of aldehydes and ketones to the corresponding alcohols (80). At low temperatures, diphenylstibine undergoes an addition reaction with ketene (81) ... 

Reduction of Aldehydes and Ketones to Hydrocarbons. Deep hydrogenation of aldehydes and ketones removes the oxygen functionahty and produces the parent hydrocarbons. 

Table 8.3. Rates of Reduction of Aldehydes and Ketones by Sodium Borohydride...

Section 15.2 Alcohols can be prepared from car bonyl compounds by reduction of aldehydes and ketones. See Table 15.3. 

Reduction of aldehydes and ketones with aluminum isopropoxide... 

A number of side-reactions may be observed with the Rosenmund reduction, which however can be avoided by proper reaction conditions. A poorly deactivated catalyst will lead to reduction of aldehyde 2 to the alcohol 4, or even to... 

Lithium aluminum hydride, LiAIH4/ is another reducing agent often used for reduction of aldehydes and ketones. A grayish powder that is soluble in ether and tetrabydrofuran, LiAlH4 is much more reactive than NaBH4 but also more dangerous. It reacts violently with water and decomposes explosively when heated above 120 °C. 

Formation of an Alcohol The simplest reaction of a tetrahedral alkoxide intermediate is protonation to yield an alcohol. We ve already seen two examples of this kind of process during reduction of aldehydes and ketones with hydride reagents such as NaBH4 and LiAlH4 (Section 17.4) and during Grignard reactions (Section 17.5). During a reduction, the nucleophile that adds to the carbonyl... 

Figure 8.27 Reduction of aldehyde in SCCO2 by an isolated enzyme, horse liver alcohol dehydrogenase (HLADH) [20c] (a) Reaction scheme (b) fluorinated coenzyme soluble in CO2 and (c) effect of coenzyme on the reaction.

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