Samarium reductants

The reductive coupling of aldehydes or ketones with 01, -unsaturated carboxylic esters by > 2 mol samarium(II) iodide (J.A. Soderquist, 1991) provides a convenient route to y-lactones (K. Otsubo, 1986). Intramolecular coupling of this type may produce trans-2-hy-droxycycloalkaneacetic esters with high stereoselectivity, if the educt is an ( )-isomer (E.J. Enholm, 1989 A, B). 

Reduction of 1-pentanol to pentane reportedly occurs during condensation of samarium with excess alcohol (86). 

The mechanism for the transformation of 5 to 4 was not addressed. However, it seems plausible that samarium diiodide accomplishes a reduction of the carbon-chlorine bond to give a transient, resonance-stabilized carbon radical which then adds to a Smni-activated ketone carbonyl or combines with a ketyl radical. Although some intramolecular samarium(n)-promoted Barbier reactions do appear to proceed through the intermediacy of an organo-samarium intermediate (i.e. a Smm carbanion),10 ibis probable that a -elimination pathway would lead to a rapid destruction of intermediate 5 if such a species were formed in this reaction. Nevertheless, the facile transformation of intermediate 5 to 4, attended by the formation of the strained four-membered ring of paeoniflorigenin, constitutes a very elegant example of an intramolecular samarium-mediated Barbier reaction. 

Metal-induced reductive dimerization of carbonyl compounds is a useful synthetic method for the formation of vicinally functionalized carbon-carbon bonds. For stoichiometric reductive dimerizations, low-valent metals such as aluminum amalgam, titanium, vanadium, zinc, and samarium have been employed. Alternatively, ternary systems consisting of catalytic amounts of a metal salt or metal complex, a chlorosilane, and a stoichiometric co-reductant provide a catalytic method for the formation of pinacols based on reversible redox couples.2 The homocoupling of aldehydes is effected by vanadium or titanium catalysts in the presence of Me3SiCl and Zn or A1 to give the 1,2-diol derivatives high selectivity for the /-isomer is observed in the case of secondary aliphatic or aromatic aldehydes. 

Moreover, a dramatic increase of the reaction rate was observed when the coupUng of aromatic imines mediated by samariiun diiodide was carried out in the presence of both water and a tertiary amine or tetramethylethylene-diamine (TMEDA) [29], causing the almost instantaneous formation of the 1,2-diamine, although with undetermined diastereoselectivity. Similarly, the samarium diiodide promoted reductive coupling of iminiiun ions formed in situ by reacting ahphatic aldehydes with secondary amines and benzotriazole occurred at temperatures as low as - 70 °C [30]. Even in this case a mixture of diastereomers with undetermined ratio was obtained nevertheless, the item of diastereoselectivity induced by a chiral amine (auxiliary) is worthy of investigation. 

The asymmetric synthesis of unsymmetrical vicinal diamines by samarium diiodide induced reductive coupling of nitrones derived from aUphatic aldehydes with optically pure N-tert-butanesulfinyl aromatic imines has been recently reported [41]. For example, the reaction between nitrone 55 and... 

A variety of solvents was investigated for this reaction, as shown in Table 15.1. As inferred from Table 15.1, the hydrogenolysis performance is best in more polar solvents snch as acetonitrile, acetone, ethyl acetate, and acetic acid. Only in o-dichlorobenzene is the rate of reaction ranch lower than predicted by the dielectric constant. The presence of nonpolar solvents snch as hexane and the thiol product resulted in large amonnts of the disnlfide intermediate. It has been shown that the disnlfide is the intermediate in stoichiometric rednctions such as samarium diiodide reduction of alkyl thiocyanates to thiols (11) so it is reasonable to expect it as the... 

The Julia olefination involves the addition of a sulfonyl-stabilized carbanion to a carbonyl compound, followed by elimination to form an alkene.277 In the initial versions of the reaction, the elimination was done under reductive conditions. More recently, a modified version that avoids this step was developed. The former version is sometimes referred to as the Julia-Lythgoe olefination, whereas the latter is called the Julia-Kocienski olefination. In the reductive variant, the adduct is usually acylated and then treated with a reducing agent, such as sodium amalgam or samarium diiodide.278... 

Samarium metal in isopropanol also achieves reduction.195 Like the Meerwein-Pondorff-Verley procedure, these conditions are believed to be under thermodynamic control and the more stable stereoisomer is the main product.196... 

Another useful reagent for reduction of a-acetoxyketones and similar compounds is samarium diiodide.233 Sml2 is a strong one-electron reducing agent, and it is believed that the reductive elimination occurs after a net two-electron reduction of the carbonyl group. 

Calciothermic reduction of samarium oxide, in the presence of cobalt powder, yields samarium-cobalt alloys in the powder form. The process is popularly known as reduction diffusion. Samarium oxide, mixed with cobalt powder and calcium hydride powder or calcium particles, is heated at 1200 °C under 1 atm hydrogen pressure to produce the alloys. Cobalt oxide sometimes partly replaces the cobalt metal in the charge for alloy preparation. This presents no difficulty because calcium can easily reduce cobalt oxide. A pelletized mixture of oxides of samarium and cobalt, cobalt and calcium, with the components taken in stoichiometric quantities, is heated at 1100-1200 °C in vacuum for 2 to 3 h. This process is called coreduction. In reduction diffusion as well as in coreduction, the metals samarium and/or cobalt form by reduction rather quickly but they need time to form the alloy by diffusion, which warrants holding the charge at the reaction temperature for 4 to 5 h. The yield of alloy in these processes ranges from 97 to 99%. Reduction diffusion is the method by which most of the 500 to 600 t of the magnetic samarium-cobalt alloy (SmCOs) are produced every year. 

The reduction diffusion process has also been used for the production of powders of the magnetic neodymium-iron-boron alloy (Nd15Fe77B8). The reaction involves use of a powder mix of neodymium oxide, iron, ferroboron and calcium. The reaction is conducted by heating the powder charge mixture at 1200 °C for 4 h under vacuum. Neodymium-iron-boron alloys are much more prone to oxidation than samarium-cobalt alloys and a proprietary leaching procedure is used for the separation of the alloy and calcium oxide. 

All the rare earth metals except samarium, europium, and ytterbium can be prepared in a pure form by reducing their trifluorides with calcium. Magnesium fluoride is less stable than the rare earth fluorides and so magnesium does not figure as a reductant. Lithium forms a fluoride which is stabler than some of the rare earth fluorides and thus finds some use as a reductant. 

Low-valent lanthanides represented by Sm(II) compounds induce one-electron reduction. Recycling of the Sm(II) species is first performed by electrochemical reduction of the Sm(III) species [32], In one-component cell electrolysis, the use of sacrificial anodes of Mg or A1 allows the samarium-catalyzed pinacol coupling. Samarium alkoxides are involved in the transmet-allation reaction of Sm(III)/Mg(II), liberating the Sm(III) species followed by further electrochemical reduction to re-enter the catalytic cycle. The Mg(II) ion is formed in situ by anodic oxidation. SmCl3 can be used in DMF or NMP as a catalyst precursor without the preparation of air- and water-sensitive Sm(II) derivatives such as Sml2 or Cp2Sm. 

A 1990 patent reported the quantitative cydization of 1,5-hexadiene 66 to 67 with Cp 2LuCH3 (Cp = C5Mc5 anion) in the presence of PhSiH3 (Scheme 14) [39]. This result was followed by reports that Cp 2NdCH(SiMe3)2 reductively cyclized both 66 and 1,6-heptadiene (68) under similar conditions [40] and that Cp 2SmCH(SiMe3)2 also served as a precatalyst for the cydization of 1,5-hexadiene [41]. In the case of the neodymium and samarium catalysts competitive alkene hydrosilylation was observed. 

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