Sodium borohydride, Sodium tetrahydroborate

Name Reactions

Recent Literature

Manganese dioxide is employed as an in situ oxidant for the one-pot conversion of alcohols into imines. In combination with polymer-supported cyanoborohydride (PSCBH), a one-pot oxidation-imine formation-reduction sequence enables alcohols to be converted directly into both secondary and tertiary amines.
L. Blackburn, R. J. K. Taylor, Org. Lett., 2001, 3, 1637-1639.

In the reductive amination of some aldehydes with primary amines where dialkylation is a problem, a stepwise procedure involving imine formation in MeOH followed by reduction with NaBH₄ was developed.
A. F. Abdel-Magid, K. G. Carson, B. D. Harris, C. A. Maryanoff, R. D. Shah, J. Org. Chem., 1996, 61, 3849-3862.

A simple and convenient procedure allows the reductive amination of aldehydes and ketones using sodium borohydride as reducing agent and boric acid, p-toluenesulfonic acid monohydrate or benzoic acid as activator under solvent-free conditions.
B. T. Cho, S. K. Kang, Tetrahedron, 2005, 61, 5725-5734.

B. T. Cho, S. K. Kang, Tetrahedron, 2005, 61, 5725-5734.

A powerful one-pot method for the reductive alkylation of stoichiometric amounts of malononitrile with aromatic aldehydes incorporates water as the catalyst in ethanol for the condensation step. The subsequent reduction step takes place quickly and efficiently with sodium borohydride to give monosubstituted malononitriles.
F. Tayyari, D. E. Wood, P. E. Fanwick, R. E. Sammelson, Synthesis, 2008, 279-285.

Copper(II) trifluoromethanesulfonate catalyzed a mild amidation of cyclic ethers with iminoiodanes with good yields and selectivity. A subsequent reductive ring-opening of the tosylamidated products gives α,ϖ-amino alcohols.
L. He, J. Yu, J. Zhang, X.-Q. Yu, Org. Lett., 2007, 9, 2277-2280.

The reaction of aldehydes with trichloromethide followed by reductive ring opening under basic conditions affords homologated carboxylic acids in high yields. This operationally simple procedure provides a practical, efficient alternative to other homologation protocols and is compatible with sensitive aldehydes including enals and enolizable substrates.
L. R. Cafiero, T. S. Snowden, Org. Lett., 2008, 10, 3853-3856.

Phthalimides are converted to primary amines in an efficient, two-stage, one-flask operation using NaBH₄/2-propanol, then acetic acid. Phthalimides of α-amino acids are smoothly deprotected with no measurable loss of optical activity.
J. O. Osby, M. G. Martin, B. Ganem, Tetrahedron Lett., 1984, 25, 2093-2096.

A high-yielding, asymmetric synthesis of novel 4-formyl-1-(2- and 3-haloalkyl)azetidin-2-ones was developed as valuable starting materials for the synthesis of different enantiomerically enriched bicyclic azetidin-2-ones, such as piperazine, morpholine, and 1,4-diazepane annulated β-lactam derivatives.
W. Van Brabandt, M. Vanwalleghem, M. D'hooghe, N. De Kimpe, J. Org. Chem., 2006, 71, 7083-7086.

The selective aldimine cross-coupling represents a simple and flexible method for the synthesis of highly substituted unsymmetrical 1,2-diamines. In addition, either the syn- or anti-configurated vicinal diamine can be obtained, depending on the choice of the workup and reduction conditions.
C. Kison, N. Meyer, T. Opatz, Angew. Chem. Int. Ed., 2005, 44, 5662-5664.

A simple method for the chemo- and regioselective, direct catalytic allylic alkylation of aldehydes and cyclic ketones has been developed. The combination of palladium and enamine catalysis furnished α-allylic alkylated aldehydes and cyclic ketones in high yields.
I. Ibrahem, A. Córdova, Angew. Chem. Int. Ed., 2006, 45, 1952-1956.

A novel, convenient and stereoselective synthesis of trisubstituted E-alkenones has been achieved by InCl₃-mediated chemoselective reduction of Baylis-Hillman adducts with NaBH₄ as reductant.
B. Das, J. Banerjee, N. Chowdhury, A. Majhi, H. Holla, Synlett, 2006, 1879-1882.

Optically pure C₂-symmetrical cyclic amines were efficiently synthesized from the corresponding diols obtained from an enantioselective borohydride reduction of diketones in the presence of a chiral β-ketoiminato cobalt(II) catalyst.
M. Sato, Y. Gunji, T. Ikeno, T. Yamada, Synthesis, 2004, 1434-1438.

A nickel boride catalyzed reduction of nitriles allows the preparation of Boc protected amines. The catalytic use of nickel(II) chloride in combination with excess sodium borohydride is environmental benign and tolerates air and moisture. Although the yield is sometimes moderate, the cleanliness of the method is exceptional.
S. Caddick, D. B. Judd, A. K. de K. Lewis, M. T. Reich, M. R. V. Williams, Tetrahedron, 2003, 59, 5417-5423.

A selective and direct access to secondary amines by reductive mono-N-alkylation of primary amines with carbonyl compounds in the presence of Ti(i-PrO)₄ and NaBH₄ gave exclusively secondary amines.
H. J. Kumpaty, S. Bhattacharyya, E. W. Rehr, A. M. Gonzalez, Synthesis, 2003, 2206-2210.

Treatment of ketones with ammonia in ethanol and titanium(IV) isopropoxide, followed by in situ reduction with sodium borohydride allows a highly chemoselective reductive mono-alkylation of ammonia. A simple workup afforded primary amines in good to excellent yields. Reductive alkylation of ammonia with aldehydes afforded the corresponding symmetrical secondary amines selectively.
B. Miriyala, S. Bhattacharyya, J. S. Williamson, Tetrahedron, 2004, 60, 1463-1471.

A catalytic, direct asymmetric cross-aldol reaction of two different aldehydes in the presence of water is catalyzed by a novel combined proline-surfactant organocatalyst. Neither an organic cosolvent nor additional acid is necessary.
Y. Hayashi, S. Aratake, T. Okano, J. Takahashi, T. Sumiya, M. Shoji, Angew. Chem. Int. Ed., 2006, 45, 5527-5529.

Reliable and Versatile Synthesis of 2-Aryl-Substituted Cinnamic Acid Esters
A. Ianni, S. R. Waldvogel, Synthesis, 2006, 2103-2112.

Salicylic acids and alcohols can be reduced to 2-methylphenols by a simple two steps procedure. Reaction conditions were optimized carrying out a study on the solvent effect and the amount of the reducing agent. The improved procedure resulted particularly useful in the synthesis of deuterated building blocks of biological interest.
F. Mazzini, P. Salvadori, Synthesis, 2005, 2479-2481.

γ-Hydroxy-α,β-acetylenic esters are used as precursors for the preparation of γ-hydroxy-α,β-alkenoic esters by means of trans-selective additions of two hydrogen atoms or one hydrogen atom and one iodine atom across the triple bonds. These methods allow the preparation of β-substituted and α,β-disubstituted alkenoic esters in highly stereoselective manners.
C. T. Meta, K. Koide, Org. Lett., 2004, 6, 1785-1787.

Treatment of 3-[(alkoxycarbonyl)alkyl]-substituted conjugated cycloalkenones with diisobutylaluminum hydride at -78 °C followed by acid quenching furnishes spiro ethers, whereas the corresponding 3-(carboxyalkyl)-substituted cycloalkenones generate spiro lactones upon reaction with sodium borohydride at 30 °C followed by acid quenching.
M.-C. P. Yeh, Y.-C. Lee, T.-C. Young, Synthesis, 2006, 3621-3624.

Sodium borohydride in the presence of iodine in anhydrous THF converts various sulfoxides to their thioethers in excellent yields. A chemoselective deoxygenation of sulfoxides can be achieved in the presence of other reducible functional groups such as esters, nitriles and double bonds.
B. Karimi, D. Zareyee, Synthesis, 2003, 335-336.

Dichloroindium hydride (Cl₂InH) generated in situ from the combination of a catalytic amount of indium(III) chloride and sodium borohydride in acetonitrile reduces activated vic-dibromides to the corresponding (E)-alkenes in excellent yields.
B. C. Ranu, A. Das, A. Hajira, Synthesis, 2003, 1012-1014.

B. C. Ranu, A. Das, A. Hajira, Synthesis, 2003, 1012-1014.

Pd/C in aqueous alcohol with molecular oxygen, sodium borohydride, and potassium carbonate efficiently oxidized benzylic and allylic alcohols. Sodium borohydride allows a remarkable reactivation of active sites of the Pd surface.
G. An, M. Lim, K.-S. Chun, H. Rhee, Synlett, 2007, 95-98.