Reduction With Hydrazine Wolff-Kishner

When a carbonyl group must be removed from a molecule, the acidic conditions of the Clemmensen reduction are not always compatible with other functional groups. An alternative method of reduction was developed in basic media that relied on the reaction of carbonyls with hydrazine to form a hydrazone. In the presence of base, a hydrazone anion intermediate (sec. 9.4.F) can be formed that removes a proton from the acidic solvent, leading to reduction. This process has been termed the Wolff-Kishner reduction. A variety of modifications have been introduced for this procedure, including isolation of the hydrazone and using an 

The functional group transform for reduction with hydrazine is 

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Several methods are available to supplement the phenol alkylations described above. Primary alkylphenols can be produced using the more traditional Friedel-Crafts reaction. Thus an -butylphenol can be synthesized direcdy from a butyl haUde, phenol, and mild Lewis acid catalyst. Alternatively, butyryl chloride can be used to acylate phenol producing a butyrophenone. Reduction with hydrazine (a Wolff-Kishner reduction) generates butylphenol. 

Another reaction that can be used to accomplish the same transformation is the Wolff-Kishner reduction. In this procedure the aldehyde or ketone is heated with hydrazine and potassium hydroxide in a high boiling solvent. An example is provided in the following equation. (The mechanism for the Wolff-Kishner reduction is presented in Section 18.8.) The Clemmensen reduction and the Wolff-Kishner reduction are... 

Radical addition of allyl alcohol to cyclododecanone and dehydrative cycli-sation gives a bicyclic dihydropyran. The ring-opening of the cyclic acetal of cyclododecanone with triisopropylaluminium and reclosure using trifluoro-methanesulfonyl anhydride provides an interesting alternative. The 15-hydroxy-pentadecanoic acid is then accessible by means of nitrosation, followed by Wolff-Kishner reduction. Apart from the reduction with hydrazine, catalytic, electrochemical and Clemmensen reduction are also well-established. 

An aldehyde or ketone 1 can react with hydrazine to give a hydrazone 2. The latter can be converted to a hydrocarbon—the methylene derivative 3—by loss of Na upon heating in the presence of base. This deoxygenation method is called the Wolff-Kishner reduction. ... 

The classical procedure for the Wolff-Kishner reduction—i.e. the decomposition of the hydrazone in an autoclave at 200 °C—has been replaced almost completely by the modified procedure after Huang-Minlon The isolation of the intermediate is not necessary with this variant instead the aldehyde or ketone is heated with excess hydrazine hydrate in diethyleneglycol as solvent and in the presence of alkali hydroxide for several hours under reflux. A further improvement of the reaction conditions is the use of potassium tcrt-butoxide as base and dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO) as solvent the reaction can then proceed already at room temperature. ... 

The deoxygenation of aldehydes and ketones to the corresponding hydrocarbons via the hydrazones is known as the Wolff-Kishner reduction.28 Various modifications of the original protocols have been suggested. One of the most useful is the Huang-Minlon modification, which substituted hydrazine hydrate as a safer and less expensive replacement of anhydrous hydrazine. In addition, diethylene glycol together with sodium hydroxide was used to increase the reaction... 

This silyl hydrazone formation-oxidation sequence was originally developed as a practical alternative to the synthesis and oxidation of unsubstituted hydrazones by Myers and Furrow [31]. The formation of hydrazones directly from hydrazine and ketones is invariably complicated by azine formation. In contrast, silyl hydrazones can be formed cleanly from /V,/V -bis(7< rt-butyldimethylsilyl)hydrazine and aldehydes and ketones with nearly complete exclusion of azine formation. The resulting silylhydrazones undergo many of the reactions of conventional hydrazones (Wolff-Kishner reduction, oxidation to diazo intermediate, formation of geminal and vinyl iodides) with equal or greater efficiency. It is also noteworthy that application of hydrazine in this setting may also have led to cleavage of the acetate substituents. 

The hydrazone was subsequently treated with KOH under the action of MW to undergo Wolff-Kishner reduction (leading to PhCH2Ph) within 25-30 min in excellent yields (95 %). As an extension, the reaction of neat 5- or 8-oxobenzopyran-2(lH)-ones with a variety of aromatic and heteroaromatic hydrazines is substantially accelerated by irradiation in the absence of any catalyst, solid support, or solvent [66] (Eq. 14). 

In the latest development of his elegant work with hydrazone derivatives, Andrew Myers of Harvard reports (J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2004,126, 5436) that Sc(OTf), catalyzes the addition of l,2-bis(r-butyldimethylsilyl)hydrazine, to aldehydes and ketones to form the t-butyldimethylsilylhydrazones. Addition of tBuOH/tBuOK in DMSO to the crude hydrazone effects low temperature Wolff-Kishner reduction. Alternatively, halogenation of ketone hydrazones can lead to vinyl halides such as 11, or the 1,1-dihalo derivatives, depending on conditions. Halogenation of aldehyde hydrazones provides the 1,1-dihalo derivatives such as 13. 

The first microwave-assisted Wolff-Kishner reduction was described by Parquet and Lin in 199763. The transformation of isatin to oxindole was performed on a small scale in a domestic microwave oven in two steps with a total reaction time of 40 s, as compared to 3—4 h if classical heating was utilised (Scheme 4.36). The first step involved the transformation of the carbonyl group into the hydrazone with 55% hydrazine in ethylene glycol and medium power microwave irradiation for 30 s. In the subsequent reduction step, KOH in ethylene glycol was used to substitute the more hazardous sodium ethoxide. The reaction mixture was irradiated for 10 s and the product was obtained in a yield of 32%. 

In a more general approach, eight examples of the Wolff—Kishner reduction of aromatic aldehydes and ketones are described using 80% hydrazine hydrate in toluene64 (Scheme 4.37). The reaction times are longer than described in the previous paper because less reactive substrates were used. Still, both the formation of the hydrazone and the reduction step are considerably faster than under thermal conditions the reduction proceeds at ambient pressure and in the absence of a solvent. The microwave reduction is compatible with other reducible functional groups such as aromatic OMe, Me, Cl or COOMe, which can otherwise cause problems under conventional reaction conditions64. 

The first report on a successful microwave-assisted one-step reduction of ketones to their respective hydrocarbons via the hydrazones appeared in 20 0 265. This so called Huang-Minlon variant of the Wolff-Kishner reduction was successfully applied to some aromatic and aliphatic aldehydes and ketones, including intermediates in the synthesis of the alkaloid flavopereirine. The reactions were performed by mixing the carbonyl compound with 2 equiv of hydrazine hydrate and an excess of powdered KOH in a commercial microwave oven. The mixtures were irradiated at 150 W for a few minutes before 250-350 W irradiations were applied (Scheme 4.39). The reaction was shown... 

A mixture of benzophenone (1.84 g, 10 mmol) and 80% hydrazine hydrate (1 g, 20 mmol) in toluene (15 mL) was taken in an Erlenmeyer flask and placed in a commercial microwave oven operating at 2450 MHz frequency. After irradiation of the mixture for 20 min, (monitored by TLC) it was cooled to room temperature, extracted with chloroform and dried over anhydrous Na2S04. Removal of solvent gave the benzophenone hydrazone in 95% yield. For the Wolff-Kishner reductions, a mixture of hydrazone 3a (5 mmol) and KOH (2 g) were taken in an Erlenmeyer flask and placed in a microwave oven. Irradiation for 30 min and usual workup gave the corresponding diphenylmethane in 95% yield. 

Ketones can be reduced directly to alkanes by the Wolff-Kishner reduction. In this reduction, the ketone is converted to the hydrazone, which is treated in situ with sodium hydroxide. An internal redox reaction occurs in which the carbon is reduced and the hydrazine is oxidized to nitrogen. The best experimental conditions include the use of NaOH and ediylene glycol as solvent to carry out the reduction. 

Method A. Huang-Minlon modification of the Wolff-Kishner reduction. Place 36.0 g (0.3 mol) of redistilled acetophenone, b.p. 201 °C, 300 ml of diethylene glycol, 30ml of 90 per cent hydrazine hydrate (CAUTION) and 40g of potassium hydroxide pellets in a 500-ml two-necked round-bottomed flask fitted with a reflux condenser insert a thermometer supported in a screw-capped adapter in the side-neck so that the bulb dips into the reaction mixture. Warm the mixture on a boiling water bath until most of the potassium hydroxide has dissolved and then heat under reflux for 1 hour either by means of a free flame or by using a heating mantle. Remove the reflux condenser and fit a still-head and condenser for downward distillation. Distil until the temperature of the liquid rises to 175 °C (1). Separate the upper hydrocarbon layer from the distillate and extract the aqueous layer twice with 20 ml portions of ether. Dry the combined upper layer and ethereal extracts with magnesium sulphate, remove the ether on a water bath and distil the residue. Collect ethylbenzene at 135-136 °C the yield is 20 g (62.5%). 

The Wolff-Kishner reduction is an old and still often used method for the reduction of a ketone to the corresponding alkane. The Huang-Minlon modification of this reduction is commonly employed. It entails the treatment of the ketone with hydrazine hydrate and KOH in diethylene glycol, first at low temperature and then at reflux (200 °C). 

Starting from isolated hydrazones, reduction to the corresponding hydrocarbons by treatment with base in an aprotic solvent takes place at temperatures significantly below the 200 °C of the Huang-Minlon modification of the Wolff-Kishner reduction. However, hydra-zones cannot be prepared in a one-step reaction between a ketone and hydrazine, since usually azines (R1R2C=N=N=CR1R2) are formed instead. However, semicarbazones are hydrazone derivatives that are easily accessible by the reaction of a ketone with semicarbazide (for the mechanism, see Table 9.2). Semicarbazones can be converted into alkanes with KO/Bu in toluene at temperatures as low as 100 °C. This method provides an alternative to the Wolff-Kishner reduction when much lower than usual reduction temperatures are desirable. 

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