Reductive alkylation of aldehydes and ketones

The reductive capability of CgK has been a subject of interest (LA). Uses for CgK include the reductive cleavage of carbon-sulfur bonds (S5), the reductive alkylation of nitriles and esters (S6), and the reductive alkylation of aldehydes and ketones (S7). The activity of CgK has... 

Reductive alkylation of aldehydes and ketones essentially involves replacement of oxygen with two alkyl groups to furnish alkanes. The procedure can be employed advantageously for the conversion of ketones into em-dimethylated alkanes, a structural feature present in many natural products. Thus, several cyclic ketones have been transformed into m-dimethylated alkanes, employing mild conditions, with dimethyl-titanium dichloride (equation 68). m-Dimethylation of ketones has also been achieved by heating them with (CH3)3 A1 in the presence of AICI3 (equations 69 and 70). ... 

The alkylation of ammonia, Gabriel synthesis, reduction of nitriles, reduction of amides, reduction of nitrocompounds, and reductive amination of aldehydes and ketones are methods commonly used for preparing amines. 

Amines can be reductively alkylated by aldehydes and ketones in the presence of hydrogen and a hydrogenation catalyst. 

An important additional amine synthesis in ibis section is reductive aminalion of aldehydes and ketones. In particular, reductive aminalion of a ketone is a belter way to make an amine attached to a 2° alkyl group than is Sn2 reaction with a 2° haloalkane. 

A more general method of amine synthesis, called reductive amination of aldehydes and ketones, allows the construction of primary, secondary, and tertiary amines. In this process, the carbonyl compound is exposed to an amine containing at least one N-H bond (NH3, primary, secondary amines) and a reducing agent to furnish a new alkylated amine directly (a primary, secondary, or tertiary amine, respectively). The new C-N bond is formed to the carbonyl carbon of the aldehyde or ketone. 

By-Products. Almost all commercial manufacture of pyridine compounds involves the concomitant manufacture of various side products. Liquid- and vapor-phase synthesis of pyridines from ammonia and aldehydes or ketones produces pyridine or an alkylated pyridine as a primary product, as well as isomeric aLkylpyridines and higher substituted aLkylpyridines, along with their isomers. Furthermore, self-condensation of aldehydes and ketones can produce substituted ben2enes. Condensation of ammonia with the aldehydes can produce certain alkyl or unsaturated nitrile side products. Lasdy, self-condensation of the aldehydes and ketones, perhaps with reduction, can lead to alkanes and alkenes. 

The reduction of nitrobenzene to aniline is a major industrial process at the heart of the production of polyurethanes, and it is also often used as a marker reaction to compare activities of catalysts [1,2], It can be performed over a variety of catalysts and in a variety of solvents. As well as its main use in polymethanes, aniline is used in a wide range of industries such as dyes, agrochemicals, by further reaction and functionalisation. Reductive alkylation is one such way of functionalising aromatic amines [3, 4], The reaction usually takes place between an amine and a ketone, aldehyde or alcohol. However it is possible to reductively alkylate direct from the nitro precursor to the amine and in this way remove a processing step. In this study we examined the reductive alkylation of nitrobenzene and aniline by 1-hexanol. 

The organic analogues of the reactions to be discussed here are the borane reductions of aldehydes and ketones and the addition of metal alkyls across ketonic carbonyls, equation 15. In contrast to the ease of these organic reactions, qualitative data which has accumulated in our laboratory over the last decade demonstrates that the carbonyl group in organometallies is fairly resistant to addition across CO. For example, many stable adducts of organometallie carbonyls with aluminum alkyls are known, eq. lc, but under similar conditions a ketone will quickly react by addition of the aluminum alkyl across the CO bond. A similar reactivity pattern is seen with boron halides. 

Seebach and Daum (75) investigated the properties of a chiral acyclic diol, 1,4-bis(dimethylamino)-(2S,35)- and (2K,3/ )-butane-2,3-diol (52) as a chiral auxiliary reagent for complexing with LAH. The diol is readily available from diethyl tartrate by conversion to the dimethylamide and reduction with LAH. The diol 52 could be converted to a 1 1 complex (53) with LAH (eq. [18]), which was used for the reduction of aldehydes and ketones in optical yields up to 75%. Since both enantiomers of 53 are available, dextro- or levorotatory products may be prepared. The chiral diol is readily recoverable without loss of optical activity. The (- )-52-LAH complex reduced dialkyl and aryl alkyl ketones to products enriched in the (S)-carbinol, whereas (+ )-52-LAH gives the opposite result. The highest optical yield of 75% was obtained in the reduction of 2,4,6-... 

Amines are prepared by aminolysis of alkyl halides, and also reductive amination (reduction in the presence of ammonia) of aldehydes and ketones (see Section 5.7.19). They are obtained conveniently from Hofmann rearrangement of amides. 

The lower members of the homologous series of 1. Alcohols 2. Aldehydes 3. Ketones 4. Acids 5. Esters 6. Phenols 7. Anhydrides 8. Amines 9. Nitriles 10. Polyhydroxy phenols 1. Polybasic acids and hydro-oxy acids. 2. Glycols, poly-hydric alcohols, polyhydroxy aldehydes and ketones (sugars) 3. Some amides, ammo acids, di-and polyamino compounds, amino alcohols 4. Sulphonic acids 5. Sulphinic acids 6. Salts 1. Acids 2. Phenols 3. Imides 4. Some primary and secondary nitro compounds oximes 5. Mercaptans and thiophenols 6. Sulphonic acids, sulphinic acids, sulphuric acids, and sul-phonamides 7. Some diketones and (3-keto esters 1. Primary amines 2. Secondary aliphatic and aryl-alkyl amines 3. Aliphatic and some aryl-alkyl tertiary amines 4. Hydrazines 1. Unsaturated hydrocarbons 2. Some poly-alkylated aromatic hydrocarbons 3. Alcohols 4. Aldehydes 5. Ketones 6. Esters 7. Anhydrides 8. Ethers and acetals 9. Lactones 10. Acyl halides 1. Saturated aliphatic hydrocarbons Cyclic paraffin hydrocarbons 3. Aromatic hydrocarbons 4. Halogen derivatives of 1, 2 and 3 5. Diaryl ethers 1. Nitro compounds (tertiary) 2. Amides and derivatives of aldehydes and ketones 3. Nitriles 4. Negatively substituted amines 5. Nitroso, azo, hy-drazo, and other intermediate reduction products of nitro com-pounds 6. Sulphones, sul-phonamides of secondary amines, sulphides, sulphates and other Sulphur compounds... 

The Wallach-Leuckart reductive alkylation of ammonia, and primary and secondary amines, by means of aldehydes and ketones, and the methylation of secondary amines according to Clarke and Eschweiler,3160 all possess a reduction step which is very similar to that observed in the reduction of enamines.317... 

The next two examples illustrate the reduction of aldehydes and ketones in the presence of other reactive functional groups. No reaction occurs at the nitro group in the first case or at the alkyl halide in the second. 

Three common procedures are available for the transformation of aldehydes and ketones to hydrocarbons (1) reduction by zinc and hydrochloric acid (Clemmensen), (2) reduction by hydrazine in the presence of a base (Wolff-Kishner), and (3) catalytic hydrogenation. In view of the complicated mixtures obtained by the polyalkylation of benzene by the Friedel-Crafts reaction (method 1), reduction of alkyl aryl ketones is the most reliable method for the preparation of di- and poly-alkylbenzenes. 

Reduction, Alkylation, Allylation, Cyanation, and Phenylation of Aldehydes and Ketones... 

Carbon tetrachloride undergoes stepwise reduction at mercury in DMF containing TEABr [45]. Several groups of workers [46-52] have electrogenerated the shortlived trichloromethyl anion, which can react with acrylonitrile, ethyl acrylate, diethyl fumarate, alkyl monohalides, and a variety of aldehydes and ketones. De Angelis and coworkers [53] have used dichlorocarbene, generated via reduction of carbon tetra-... 

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