Reduction saturated metal enolates

Sodium borohydride (160) was found to serve as a hydrogen donor in the asymmetric reduction of the presence of an a,pi-unsaturated ester or amide 162 catalyzed by a cobalt-Semicorrin 161 complex, which gave the corresponding saturated carbonyl compound 163 with 94-97% ee [93]. The [i-hydrogen in the products was confirmed to come from sodium borohydride, indicating the formation of a metal enolate intermediate via conjugate addition of cobalt-hydride species (Scheme 2.17). 

Alcohols, such as methanol and ethanol, lead to the sole formation of saturated alcohols from unsaturated ketones when the former are present in excess during the reduction. Mixtures of ketones and alcohols are generally formed when 1 equiv. of these proton donors is employed. These alcohols have an acidity comparable to that of saturated ketones, and when they are present, an equilibrium can be established between the initially formed metal enolate and the saturated ketone. The latter is then reduced to the saturated alcohol. Such reductions generally do not occur to a very significant extent when 1 equiv. of r-butyl alcohoP or some less acidic proton donor, such as triphenylcarbinol, is employed. The acidity of the ketone involved, as well as the solubility of the metal enolate in the reaction medium, are important in determining whether alcohols are formed. 

Even though the reaction conditions may lead to formation of the metal enolate in high yield, further reduction may occur during the quenching step of the reaction. Alcohols such as methanol and ethanol convert metal enolates to saturated ketones much faster than they react with metals in ammonia, and quenching of reduction mixtures with these alcohols will usually lead to partial or complete conversion to alcoholic product rather than to the saturated ketone. Rapid addition of excess solid ammonium chloride is the commonly employed quench procedure if ketonic products are desired,but other reagents that destroy solvated electrons before neutralization may be employed, such as sodium ben-zoate, iron(III) nitrate, - sodium nitrite, bromobenzene, sodium bromate, 1,2-dibromoethane and acetone. 

Metal-ammonia solutions reduce conjugated enones to saturated ketones and reductively cleave a-acetoxy ketones i.e. ketol acetates) to the unsubstituted ketones. In both cases the actual reduction product is the enolate salt of a saturated ketone this salt resists further reduction. If an alcohol is present in the reaction mixture, the enolate salt protonates and the resulting ketone is reduced further to a saturated alcohol. Linearly or cross-conjugated dienones are reduced to enones in the absence of a proton donor other than ammonia. The Birch reduction of unsaturated ketones to saturated alcohols was first reported by Wilds and Nelson using lithium as the reducing agent. This metal has been used almost exclusively by subsequent workers for the reduction of both unsaturated and saturated ketones. Calcium has been preferred for the reductive cleavage of ketol acetates. 

The isomerization of allylic alcohols provides an enol (or enolate) intermediate, which tautomerizes to afford the saturated carbonyl compound (Equation (8)). The isomerization of allylic alcohols to saturated carbonyl compounds is a useful synthetic process with high atom economy, which eliminates conventional two-step sequential oxidation and reduction.25,26 A catalytic one-step transformation, which is equivalent to an internal reduction/oxidation process, is a conceptually attractive strategy due to easy access to allylic alcohols.27-29 A variety of transition metal complexes have been employed for the isomerization of allylic alcohols, as shown below. 

If the equilibrium were established rapidly, reduction of the free ketone as it formed would result in a substantial loss of product. Lithium enolates are more covalent in character than are those of sodium and potassium and consequently are the least basic of the group. This lower thermodynamic basicity appears to be paralleled by a lower kinetic basicity several workers have shown that lithium enolates are weaker bases in the kinetic sense than are those of sodium and potassium.42,78,94 As noted earlier, conjugated enones have been reduced to saturated ketones almost exclusively with lithium the above considerations may explain why this metal has been favored by most chemists. The following observations, however, suggest that sodium may function nearly as well as lithium in the reduction of conjugated enones. 

In the presence of acids (e.g. ethanol) sufficiently strong to protonate the enolate anion, however, the ketone is generated in the reducing medium and is reduced further to the saturated alcohol. The formation of enolate anions such as 63 during metal-ammonia reduction of a,p-unsaturated ketones is shown by their ready trapping with electrophiles such as iodomethane. 

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