Selective Reduction of Carbonyl Group with Borohydride Exchang Resin (BER)-LiCl System

摘要

The reduction rate of borohydride exchange resin (BER) was greatly enhanced in the presence of lithium salts. Thus 2-heptanone was reduced completely with BER-LiCl in 1 h at room temperature. However, no reduction was observed with BER alone under the same conditions. With this system, organic compounds containing various fuctional groups were examined in ethanol at room temperature. This study revealed that BER-LiCl system exhibits an excellent chemoselectivity for carbonyl group in the presence of other functional groups. Keto esters and epoxy ketones were reduced with BER-LiCl to give the corresponding hydroxy esters and epoxy alcohols with excellent yields. Selective reductions of carbonyl groups were also possible in the presence of other organic compounds containing functional groups such as 1-idooctane, 1-bromooctane, caproamide, hexanenitrile, nitrobenzene, n-butyl disulfide, dimethyl sulfoxide and 1-dodecene.