Formaldehyde
Formaldehyde can be oxidized or reduced relatively simply.
However, the use of formaldehyde should be avoided due to its carcinogenic potential. More suitable as reducing agents are rather metal hydrides.
Name Reactions
Cannizzaro ReactionRecent Literature
The reductive potential of formaldehyde is sufficient to provide methylation
of secondary amines in the absence of acidic additives. Various acid-sensitive
moieties remain intact under the developed conditions. The scalability of the
elaborated approach was shown for several products.
K. O. Biriukov, E. Podyacheva, I. Tarabrin, O. I. Afanasyev, D. Chusov, J. Org. Chem., 2024, 89,
3580-3584.
