Sodium borohydride nitriles

AletalHydrides. Metal hydrides can sometimes be used to prepare amines by reduction of various functional groups, but they are seldom the preferred method. Most metal hydrides do not reduce nitro compounds at all (64), although aUphatic nitro compounds can be reduced to amines with lithium aluminum hydride. When aromatic amines are reduced with this reagent, a2o compounds are produced. Nitriles, on the other hand, can be reduced to amines with lithium aluminum hydride or sodium borohydride under certain conditions. Other functional groups which can be reduced to amines using metal hydrides include amides, oximes, isocyanates, isothiocyanates, and a2ides (64). 

Aniline 77 was converted into its diazonium salt with nitrous acid and this was followed by reduction with stannous chloride to afford the corresponding arylhydrazine 78. Condensation of 78 with 3-cyanopropanal dimethylacetal 79 gave the arylhydrazone 80. Treatment of 80 with PPE resulted in cyclization to indole 81. The nitrile group was then reduced to the primary amine by catalytic hydrogenation. Reaction of the amine with excess formalin and sodium borohydride resulted in Imitrex (82). 

The tricyclic benzothiazepinone 1 is reduced by ethanolic sodium borohydride to a tetrahydro compound, which is isolated as the sulfoxide 2, formed by air oxidation. Reaction of 1 with dichloroketene or various nitrile oxides results in cycloadducts.426... 

The nucleophiles that are used for synthetic purposes include water, alcohols, carboxylate ions, hydroperoxides, amines, and nitriles. After the addition step is complete, the mercury is usually reductively removed by sodium borohydride, the net result being the addition of hydrogen and the nucleophile to the alkene. The regio-selectivity is excellent and is in the same sense as is observed for proton-initiated additions.17... 

An interesting example of asymmetric induction has been used for the synthesis of (—)-l from L-tryptophan. Pictet-Spengler cyclization of the corresponding amide (127) with 5-chloropentanal afforded (—)-128 as the sole product. Removal of the unwanted carboxamide function was achieved in good yield by sodium borohydride reduction of die corresponding a-amino nitrile (—)-129, resulting in (—)-l (98). 

If the perhydrooxazolo[3,2- ]pyridine now possesses a nitrile at C-5, the aminonitrile can be reduced with sodium borohydride as exemplified in Scheme 89 <1998T8783>. Another option is to generate an intermediate iminium ion and to further reduce it with zinc borohydride <1998T8783>. 

Sodium borohydride is a much milder reducing agent than lithium aluminium hydride and like the latter is used for the reduction of carbonyl compounds like aldehydes and ketones. However, under normal conditions it does not readily reduce epoxides, esters, lactones, acids, nitriles or nitro groups. 

Although there is evidence that quaternary ammonium salts are cleaved by sodium borohydride at high temperature [7], initial studies suggested that the quaternary ammonium borohydrides might have some synthetic value in their selectivity, e.g. aldehydes are reduced by an excess of the quaternary ammonium salts under homogeneous conditions in benzene at 25 °C, whereas ketones are recovered unchanged and are only partially reduced at 65 °C [2], The reduction of esters also requires the elevated temperature, whereas nitriles are not reduced even after prolonged reaction at 65 °C. Evidence that the two-phase (benzene water) reduction of octan-2-one by sodium borohydride was some 20-30 times faster in the presence of Aliquat, than in the absence of the catalyst [8], established the potential use of the mote lipophilic catalysts. 

Since sodium borohydride usually does not reduce the nitrile function it may be used for selective reductions of conjugated double bonds in oc,/l-un-saturated nitriles in fair to good yields [7069,1070]. In addition some special reagents were found effective for reducing carbon-carbon double bonds preferentially copper hydride prepared from cuprous bromide and sodium bis(2-methoxyethoxy)aluminum hydride [7766], magnesium in methanol [7767], zinc and zinc chloride in ethanol or isopropyl alcohol [7765], and triethylam-monium formate in dimethyl formamide [317]. Lithium aluminum hydride reduced 1-cyanocyclohexene at —15° to cyclohexanecarboxaldehyde and under normal conditions to aminomethylcyclohexane, both in 60% yields [777]. 

It was observed that a-amino oximes 511, when treated with sodium borohydride in boiling acetonitrile, produced the expected fragmentation products 513 in moderate to good yields (31-87%) (equation 225). The use of the hydride-induced fragmentation in cyclic oximes leads to amino nitrile compounds, as a result of the reduction of the immonium salt intermediates 512. Careful selected oxime structures showed that the reaction time increases when the stabihty of the immonium intermediate decreases, showing the importance of the mesomeric assistance. 

Reduction of RCOCI to RCHO. Sodium borohydride and this cadmium salt reduce acyl chlorides to aldehydes, but only in solvents such as DMF, DMA, and HMPT. DMF is essential, but the amount of DMF in the salt is sufficient. For the most part, yields are 50-90%. Aryl, alkyl, and benzylic halides do not react. Other functional groups (nitrile, nitro, ester, C=C) are also inert. 

Thiophenecarbaldehydes add smoothly to a,f3-unsaturated ketones and nitriles under cyanide ion catalysis to form y-diketones (366) and y-ketonitriles (367) respectively (76CB534). The 2,5-dicarbaldehyde gives the bis-adduct (368). The aldehydes undergo normal reduction to the hydroxymethylthiophenes by sodium borohydride. However, electrochemical reduction of the 2,5-dialdehyde on a mercury electrode at pH 1-3 gives the bimolecular reduction product (369) as a mixture of meso- and ( )-forms in the ratio 7 3. Reduction with zinc and acetic acid gives only the meso -form of (369) (75CR(C)(280)165>. 

An entirely different synthesis, due to Meyers and Libano, involves the acid-catalyzed condensation of a ditertiary glycol with an w-chloro-nitrile. The resulting w-chloroalkylpyrroline is reduced with aqueous sodium borohydride and cyclized by steam distillation under basic conditions.234 An example of this route is given in Scheme 24. 

The reaction may be subject to limitations in the alkene structure similar to those of the nitrile process. Besides simple amides, one can also utilize urea and urethanes in this reaction. Demercuration is best effected by using alkaline sodium borohydride in the presence of a primary amine such as Bu"NH2. 

According to Kobayashi et ul.,268 4-oxo- and 4-imino-4f f-pyrido[l,2-a]-pyrimidine-3-nitriles can be reduced to the 6,7,8,9-tetrahydro compounds with sodium borohydride. Reduction of the hydroiodide of 41 (R = H) with sodium borohydride or lithium aluminimum hydride, however, was unsuccessful.2... 

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