Saturated and Unsaturated Acyclic Hydrocarbons

McKervey, G. H. Whitham, and G. Pattenden in Comprehensive Organic Chemistry , Vol. 1, ed. J. F. Stoddart, Pergamon, Oxford, 1979. 

Further chemistry of poly-unsaturated hydrocarbons is included in a review on the synthesis of the chiral component of insect pheromones/ and applications of the retro-Diels-Alder reaction in organic synthesis have been summarized/  

The photocatalytic decarboxylation of saturated carboxylic acids to alkanes has been shown to occur on Ti02 powder. The direct replacement of primary 

The Report this year is intended to highlight the new synthetic techniques involved in the formation of saturated and unsaturated hydrocarbons, rather than to describe their reactions which lead to additional or alternative functionality. The trends in synthesis in these areas are towards the use of milder reagents to minimize side reactions and towards the application of organometallic reagents in the regio- and stereo-selective formation of unsaturated moieties found in natural products, particularly amongst the terpenoids. 

Jackson and co-workers have described a reductive dehydroxylation technique that can be carried out in the presence of a ketone, e.g. the conversion (l)- (2). 

In a series of papers, Caubere and co-workers have described their continued exploration of the use of complex reducing agents in the selective reduction of functional groups. For example, the readily prepared NaH-Bu ONa-FeCls reduces oct-l-ene to n-octane in 90—95% yield, and shows selectivity towards exocyclic double bonds. Aliphatic and aromatic halides are reduced to hydrocarbons in high yield by the same reagent, but ketones are unaffected. 

Brunet, L.Mordenti, B. Loubinoux, and P. Caubere, Tetrahedron Letters, 1977, 1069. J. J. Brunet and P. Caubere, Tetrahedron Letters, 1977, 3947, 

Apparently, halogeno-transition-metal complexes supported on phosphine-modified silica carriers are more active than their homogeneous counterparts by a factor of 2—4 orders of magnitude, as measured by their effectiveness on the hydrogenation of cyclohexene.  

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Saturated and Unsaturated Acyclic Hydrocarbons 6 Allenes and Cumulenes... 

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