Sodium with lithium

In contrast to the reaction with lithium amide, the sodium amide suspension immediately settles out after stopping the stirring and the supernatant ammonia has a grey or black colour, due to colloidal iron. In some cases it took a long time before all of the sodium had been converted (note 4). A further 0.1 g of iron(III) nitrate was then added to accelerate the reaction and some liquid ammonia was introduced to compensate for the losses due to evaporation. 

The large sulfur atom is a preferred reaction site in synthetic intermediates to introduce chirality into a carbon compound. Thermal equilibrations of chiral sulfoxides are slow, and parbanions with lithium or sodium as counterions on a chiral carbon atom adjacent to a sulfoxide group maintain their chirality. The benzylic proton of chiral sulfoxides is removed stereoselectively by strong bases. The largest groups prefer the anti conformation, e.g. phenyl and oxygen in the first example, phenyl and rert-butyl in the second. Deprotonation occurs at the methylene group on the least hindered site adjacent to the unshared electron pair of the sulfur atom (R.R. Fraser, 1972 F. Montanari, 1975). 

The formation of the above anions ("enolate type) depend on equilibria between the carbon compounds, the base, and the solvent. To ensure a substantial concentration of the anionic synthons in solution the pA" of both the conjugated acid of the base and of the solvent must be higher than the pAT -value of the carbon compound. Alkali hydroxides in water (p/T, 16), alkoxides in the corresponding alcohols (pAT, 20), sodium amide in liquid ammonia (pATj 35), dimsyl sodium in dimethyl sulfoxide (pAT, = 35), sodium hydride, lithium amides, or lithium alkyls in ether or hydrocarbon solvents (pAT, > 40) are common combinations used in synthesis. Sometimes the bases (e.g. methoxides, amides, lithium alkyls) react as nucleophiles, in other words they do not abstract a proton, but their anion undergoes addition and substitution reactions with the carbon compound. If such is the case, sterically hindered bases are employed. A few examples are given below (H.O. House, 1972 I. Kuwajima, 1976). 

The ketone is added to a large excess of a strong base at low temperature, usually LDA in THF at -78 °C. The more acidic and less sterically hindered proton is removed in a kineti-cally controlled reaction. The equilibrium with a thermodynamically more stable enolate (generally the one which is more stabilized by substituents) is only reached very slowly (H.O. House, 1977), and the kinetic enolates may be trapped and isolated as silyl enol ethers (J.K. Rasmussen, 1977 H.O. House, 1969). If, on the other hand, a weak acid is added to the solution, e.g. an excess of the non-ionized ketone or a non-nucleophilic alcohol such as cert-butanol, then the tautomeric enolate is preferentially formed (stabilized mostly by hyperconjugation effects). The rate of approach to equilibrium is particularly slow with lithium as the counterion and much faster with potassium or sodium. 

The less hindered f/ans-olefins may be obtained by reduction with lithium or sodium metal in liquid ammonia or amine solvents (Birch reduction). This reagent, however, attacks most polar functional groups (except for carboxylic acids R.E.A. Dear, 1963 J. Fried, 1968), and their protection is necessary (see section 2.6). 

Reduction with sodium in alcohol was unsuccessful (54). The introduction of lithium aluminium hydride has provided an elegant method for the reduction of thiazole esters to hydroxythiazoles for example, ethyl 2-methyl-4-thiazolecarboxylate (11 with lithium aluminium hydride in diethyl ether gives 2-methyl-4-(hydroxymethyl)thiazole (12) in 66 to 69% yield (Scheme 7) (53),... 

The use of CIF and BrF as ionizing solvents has been studied (102,103). At 100°C and elevated pressures, significant yields of KCIF [19195-69-8] CsClF [15321-04-7], RbClF [15321-10-5], I-CBrF [32312-224], RbBrF [32312-224], and CsBrF [26222-924]obtained. Chlorine trifluoride showed no reaction with lithium fluoride or sodium fluoride. 

The use of alkaU metals for anionic polymerization of diene monomers is primarily of historical interest. A patent disclosure issued in 1911 (16) detailed the use of metallic sodium to polymerize isoprene and other dienes. Independentiy and simultaneously, the use of sodium metal to polymerize butadiene, isoprene, and 2,3-dimethyl-l,3-butadiene was described (17). Interest in alkaU metal-initiated polymerization of 1,3-dienes culminated in the discovery (18) at Firestone Tire and Rubber Co. that polymerization of neat isoprene with lithium dispersion produced high i7j -l,4-polyisoprene, similar in stmcture and properties to Hevea natural mbber (see ELASTOLffiRS,SYNTHETic-POLYisoPRENE Rubber, natural). 

Refractive Index. The effect of mol wt (1400-4000) on the refractive index (RI) increment of PPG in ben2ene has been measured (167). The RI increments of polyglycols containing aUphatic ether moieties are negative drj/dc (mL/g) = —0.055. A plot of RI vs 1/Af is linear and approaches the value for PO itself (109). The RI, density, and viscosity of PPG—salt complexes, which maybe useful as polymer electrolytes in batteries and fuel cells have been measured (168). The variation of RI with temperature and salt concentration was measured for complexes formed with PPG and some sodium and lithium salts. Generally, the RI decreases with temperature, with the rate of change increasing as the concentration increases. 

Selective absorption of durene from heavy gasoline (bp 150—225°C) is possible using a version of UOP s Sorbex technology where the X zeoHte is made selective for durene by replacing the exchangeable sodium cations with lithium ions (16). 

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). 

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). 

A number of compounds of the types RSbY2 and R2SbY, where Y is an anionic group other than halogen, have been prepared by the reaction of dihalo- or halostibines with lithium, sodium, or ammonium alkoxides (118,119), amides (120), azides (121), carboxylates (122), dithiocarbamates (123), mercaptides (124,125), or phenoxides (118). Dihalo- and halostibines can also be converted to compounds in which an antimony is linked to a main group (126) or transition metal (127). 

CgH BiBr2, and diphenylbromobismuthine [39248-62-9] C22H2QBiBr, respectively, with lithium aluminum hydride or sodium borohydride at low temperatures yielded only black polymeric substances of empirical formula C H Bi (33). It has been claimed (34) that dimethylbismuthine and diphenylbismuthine can be used as cocatalysts for the polymerisation of ethylene (qv), propylene (qv), and 1,3-butadiene. The source of these bismuthines, however, was not mentioned. 

Treatment of thiiranes with lithium aluminum hydride gives a thiolate ion formed by attack of hydride ion on the least hindered carbon atoms (76RCR25), The mechanism is 5n2, inversion occurring at the site of attack. Polymerization initiated by the thiolate ion is a side reaction and may even be the predominant reaction, e.g. with 2-phenoxymethylthiirane. Use of THF instead of ether as solvent is said to favor polymerization. Tetrahydroborates do not reduce the thiirane ring under mild conditions and can be used to reduce other functional groups in the presence of the episulfide. Sodium in ammonia reduces norbornene episulfide to the exo thiol. 

An aiyl methane- or toluenesulfonate ester is stable to reduction with lithium aluminum hydride, to the acidic conditions used for nitration of an aromatic ring (HNO3/HOAC), and to the high temperatures (200-250°) of an Ullman reaction. Aiyl sulfonate esters, formed by reaction of a phenol with a sulfonyl chloride in pyridine or aqueous sodium hydroxide, are cleaved by warming in aqueous sodium hydroxide. ... 

The purification of diethyl ether (see Chapter 4) is typical of liquid ethers. The most common contaminants are the alcohols or hydroxy compounds from which the ethers are prepared, their oxidation products (e.g. aldehydes), peroxides and water. Peroxides, aldehydes and alcohols can be removed by shaking with alkaline potassium permanganate solution for several hours, followed by washing with water, concentrated sulfuric acid [CARE], then water. After drying with calcium chloride, the ether is distilled. It is then dried with sodium or with lithium aluminium hydride, redistilled and given a final fractional distillation. The drying process should be repeated if necessary. 

Hydroxymethylferrocene has been made by condensing ferrocene with N-methylformanilide to give ferrocenecarboxalde-hyde, and reducing the latter with lithium aluminum hydride, sodium borohydride, or formaldehyde and alkali. The present procedure is based on the method of Lindsay and Hauser. A similar procedure has been used to convert gramine methiodide to 3-hydroxymethylindole, and the method could probably be used to prepare other hydroxymethyl aromatic compounds. 

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