Silanes reduction with

Sihca is reduced to siUcon at 1300—1400°C by hydrogen, carbon, and a variety of metallic elements. Gaseous siUcon monoxide is also formed. At pressures of >40 MPa (400 atm), in the presence of aluminum and aluminum haUdes, siUca can be converted to silane in high yields by reaction with hydrogen (15). SiUcon itself is not hydrogenated under these conditions. The formation of siUcon by reduction of siUca with carbon is important in the technical preparation of the element and its alloys and in the preparation of siUcon carbide in the electric furnace. Reduction with lithium and sodium occurs at 200—250°C, with the formation of metal oxide and siUcate. At 800—900°C, siUca is reduced by calcium, magnesium, and aluminum. Other metals reported to reduce siUca to the element include manganese, iron, niobium, uranium, lanthanum, cerium, and neodymium (16). 

When double bonds are reduced by lithium in ammonia or amines, the mechanism is similar to that of the Birch reduction (15-14). ° The reduction with trifluoro-acetic acid and EtsSiH has an ionic mechanism, with H coming in from the acid and H from the silane. In accord with this mechanism, the reaction can be applied only to those alkenes that when protonated can form a tertiary carbocation or one stabilized in some other way (e.g., by a OR substitution). It has been shown, by the detection of CIDNP, that reduction of a-methylstyrene by hydridopenta-carbonylmanganese(I) HMn(CO)5 involves free-radical addition. ... 

Some reductions with silanes have already been described in previous chapters (in Section 4.8 reaction of 356 to give 359 in Section 5.4 reaction of 121 to give 717, 718 to 719 in Section 12.1 reaction of 1790 to give 1791). Because of the many applications of such reductions with silanes in the chemical literature only a selected number of examples can be given in this chapter. 

Aluminum chloride, used either as a stoichiometric reagent or as a catalyst with gaseous hydrogen chloride, may be used to promote silane reductions of secondary alkyl alcohols that otherwise resist reduction by the action of weaker acids.136 For example, cyclohexanol is not reduced by organosilicon hydrides in the presence of trifluoroacetic acid in dichloromethane, presumably because of the relative instability and difficult formation of the secondary cyclohexyl carbocation. By contrast, treatment of cyclohexanol with an excess of hydrogen chloride gas in the presence of a three-to-four-fold excess of triethylsilane and 1.5 equivalents of aluminum chloride in anhydrous dichloromethane produces 70% of cyclohexane and 7% of methylcyclopentane after a reaction time of 3.5 hours at... 

A variety of para-substituted 2-phenyl-2-butanols undergo quick and efficient reductions to the corresponding 2-phenylbutanes when they are dissolved in dichloromethane and a 2-10% excess of phenylmethylneopentylsilane and boron trifluoride is introduced at 0° (Eq. 30).126 Several reactions deserve mention. For example, when R = CF3, use of trifluoroacetic acid produces no hydrocarbon product, even after two hours of reaction time. In contrast, addition of boron trifluoride catalyst provides an 80% yield of product after only two minutes. When R = MeO, both trifluoroacetic acid and boron trifluoride produce a quantitative yield of the hydrocarbon within two minutes. However, when R = NO2, attempts to promote the reduction with either trifluoroacetic acid or even methanesulfonic acid fail even after reaction periods of up to eight hours, only recovered starting alcohol is obtained. Use of boron trifluoride provides a quantitative conversion into 2-(/ -nitrophenyl)butane after only ten minutes. It is significant that the normally easily reducible nitro group survives these conditions entirely intact.126129 Triethylsilane may be used as the silane.143... 

Alkyl Halides. Commonly, reductions with liquid silanes and liquid alkyl halides do not require the use of a solvent.186 When the alkyl halide is a solid, either pentane186 or dichloromethane may be used as solvent.192 No significant difference in reactivities is observed between alkyl chloride and bromide substrates,186 but allyl halides are more reactive than 2-halopropanes, which, in turn, are more reactive than 1-halopropanes.190,146... 

Standard cyclisation methodology was used to access the cyclic monophosphinic acid derivative 78 by reaction of ammonium phosphonate and ethyldiisopropylamine, followed by the addition of chlorotrimethylsilane, with 2,2 -bis (bromomethyl)-l,l -biphenyl. Silane reduction of 78 gave the secondary phosphine. The secondary phosphine borane complex 79 could be used in alkylation or Michael addition reactions. For example the Michael adduct 80 was produced in high yield by treatment of 78 with a NaH suspension in THF followed by the addition of diethylvinylphosphonate . 

Recently, Schaumann et al. 153,154 an(j Bienz et tf/.155,156 have developed dependable routes for the resolution of racemic functionalized organosilanes with Si-centered chirality using chiral auxiliaries, such as binaphthol (BINOL), 2-aminobutanol, and phenylethane-l,2-diol (Scheme 2). For instance, the successive reaction of BINOL with butyllithium and the chiral triorganochlorosilanes RPhMeSiCl (R = /-Pr, -Bu, /-Bu) affords the BINOL monosilyl ethers 9-11, which can be resolved into the pure enantiomers (A)-9-ll and (7 )-9-11, respectively. Reduction with LiAlFF produces the enantiomerically pure triorgano-H-silanes (A)- and (R)-RPhMeSiH (12, R = /-Pr 13, -Bu 14, /-Bu), respectively (Scheme 2). Tamao et al. have used chiral amines to prepare optically active organosilanes.157... 

By Reduction. The first known compounds containing a tervalent phosphorus function and an epoxide ring [(37) and (38)] have been prepared by reduction with phenyl-silane of the corresponding phosphine oxides they are quite stable, showing no... 

Tris(trimethylsilyl)silane reacts with phosphine sulfides and phosphine selen-ides under free radical conditions to give the corresponding phosphines or, after treatment with BH3-THF, the corresponding phosphine-borane complex in good to excellent yields (Reaction 4.45) [82]. Stereochemical studies on P-chiral phosphine sulphides showed that these reductions proceed with retention of configuration. An example is given in Reaction (4.46). 

Complex hydrides are reagents of choice for reduction of oximes, oxime ethers and nitrones. Hydrogenation is rarely used for reduction of these compounds although several examples are known. Other methods, especially reduction with silanes in the presence of acid, can also be useful for providing alternative stereochemical outcomes. 

Compound 19 was obtained by direct sulfonation of Compound 1 with concentrated H2S04 at 25°C. The dimethylamino sulfone was prepared by chlorosulfonating and aminating DiPAMP as the bis-oxide followed by silane reduction. 

In addition to catalytic reductions with molecular hydrogen or hydrogen donors, silanes also represent useful reducing agents [40]. 

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