Sodium carbonyl compound reduction

Varma reported a facile and rapid method for the reduction of aldehydes and ketones to the respective alcohols, using alumina-supported sodium borohydride and microwave irradiation under solvent-free conditions. Aldehydes tend to react at room temperature, while for the reduction of ketones, short microwave irradiation of 30-180 s was applied to produce the corresponding alcohols in 62-92% yield. With unsaturated carbonyl compounds, reduction at the conjugated C=C bond might occur as a side reaction under these conditions (Scheme 4.9)26. 

SchifT s bases A -Arylimides, Ar-N = CR2, prepared by reaction of aromatic amines with aliphatic or aromatic aldehydes and ketones. They are crystalline, weakly basic compounds which give hydrochlorides in non-aqueous solvents. With dilute aqueous acids the parent amine and carbonyl compounds are regenerated. Reduction with sodium and alcohol gives... 

Triethylammonium formate is another reducing agent for q, /3-unsaturated carbonyl compounds. Pd on carbon is better catalyst than Pd-phosphine complex, and citral (49) is reduced to citronellal (50) smoothly[55]. However, the trisubstituted butenolide 60 is reduced to the saturated lactone with potassium formate using Pd(OAc)2. Triethylammonium formate is not effective. Enones are also reduced with potassium formate[56]. Sodium hypophosphite (61) is used for the reduction of double bonds catalyzed by Pd on charcoal[57]. 

Sodium borohydride and lithium aluminum hydride react with carbonyl compounds in much the same way that Grignard reagents do except that they function as hydride donors rather than as carbanion sources Figure 15 2 outlines the general mechanism for the sodium borohydride reduction of an aldehyde or ketone (R2C=0) Two points are especially important about this process... 

A variation of the classical reductive amination procedure uses sodium cyanoboro hydride (NaBH3CN) instead of hydrogen as the reducing agent and is better suited to amine syntheses m which only a few grams of material are needed All that is required IS to add sodium cyanoborohydride to an alcohol solution of the carbonyl compound and an amine... 

Two classes of charged radicals derived from ketones have been well studied. Ketyls are radical anions formed by one-electron reduction of carbonyl compounds. The formation of the benzophenone radical anion by reduction with sodium metal is an example. This radical anion is deep blue in color and is veiy reactive toward both oxygen and protons. Many detailed studies on the structure and spectral properties of this and related radical anions have been carried out. A common chemical reaction of the ketyl radicals is coupling to form a diamagnetic dianion. This occurs reversibly for simple aromatic ketyls. The dimerization is promoted by protonation of one or both of the ketyls because the electrostatic repulsion is then removed. The coupling process leads to reductive dimerization of carbonyl compounds, a reaction that will be discussed in detail in Section 5.5.3 of Part B. 

The azlactones of a-benzoylaminocinnamic acids have traditionally been prepared by the action of hippuric acid (1, Ri = Ph) and acetic anhydride upon aromatic aldehydes, usually in the presence of sodium acetate. The formation of the oxazolone (2) in Erlenmeyer-Plochl synthesis is supported by good evidence. The method is a way to important intermediate products used in the synthesis of a-amino acids, peptides and related compounds. The aldol condensation reaction of azlactones (2) with carbonyl compounds is often followed by hydrolysis to provide unsaturated a-acylamino acid (4). Reduction yields the corresponding amino acid (6), while drastic hydrolysis gives the a-0X0 acid (5). ... 

The tosylhydrazone is prepared from the carbonyl compound and then reduced with lithium aluminium hydride, sodium borohydride or potassium borohydride. In this way D-glucose tosylhydrazone was converted into crystalline 1-deoxyglucitol by reduction with potassium borohydride... 

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... 

Reduction of carbonyl compounds can be carried out in an aqueous medium by various reducing reagents. Among these reagents, sodium borohydride is the most frequently used. The reduction of carbonyl compounds by sodium borohydride can also use phase-transfer catalysts (Eq. 8.4),10 inverse phase-transfer catalysts,11 or polyvinylpyridines12... 

When the conditions are controlled properly, Zn can mediate the reduction of the C-C double bond of a, (3-unsaturated carbonyl compounds in the presence of a nickel catalyst in aqueous ammonium chloride (Eq. 10.7). The use of ultrasonication enhances the rate of the reaction.15 Sodium hydrogen telluride, (NaTeH), prepared in situ from the reaction of... 

Among the anionic/reduchve domino transformations, one of the most often encountered is the reductive amination of a carbonyl compound being followed by the formation of a lactam. As did many others before, Abdel-Magid and coworkers used this approach for the synthesis of y- and 6-lactams as 2-949 from either ketone 2-944 and amine 2-945 or amine 2-946 and ketone 2-947 via 2-948, employing sodium triacetoxyborane (Scheme 2.212) [484]. 

Reduction of Carbonyl Compounds to Alcohols - Sodium Borohydride-... 

Scheme 6.38 Reduction of carbonyl compounds using alumina-supported sodium borohydride.

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