Hydrogenation of alkenes or alkynes using decaborane in methanol

Article abstract of DOI:10.1016/S0040-4039(99)02137-1

Alkenes and alkynes were reduced to corresponding alkanes in methanol using decaborane (B₁₀H₁₄) in the presence of Pd/C as catalyst under nitrogen in high yields. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science Ltd.

Full text of DOI:10.1016/S0040-4039(99)02137-1

TETRAHEDRON
LETTERS
Pergamon
Tetrahedron Letters 41 (2000) 887–889
Hydrogenation of alkenes or alkynes using decaborane
in methanol
Seung Hwan Lee,a Yong June Park b and Cheol Min Yoon a,∗
aDepartment of Life Science & Biotechnology, Graduate School of Biotechnology, Seoul, South Korea
bDepartment of Chemistry, Graduate School of Chemistry, Korea University, Seoul, South Korea
Received 12 April 1999; revised 24 August 1999; accepted 8 November 1999
Abstract
Alkenes and alkynes were reduced to corresponding alkanes in methanol using decaborane (B10H14) in the
presence of Pd/C as catalyst under nitrogen in high yields. © 2000 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.
Heterogeneous catalytic transfer hydrogenation has found wide spread use in organic synthesis.1
Selective, mild and effective reducing agents in transition metal catalyzed transfer hydrogenation have
been an area of considerable interest. Some of the hydrogen donors for heterogeneous catalytic transfer
hydrogenation have been known to be simple molecules2 such as cyclohexene, cyclohexandiene, limon-
ene, hydrazine, formic acid and formates, ammonium formate, phosphinic acid and phosphinates, and
propan-2-ol. However, these hydrogen donors suffer from limitations in themselves: requiring reaction
long times, yielding mixtures, and being less productive and effective.
It was reported that decaborane (B10H14) was rapidly decomposed in acetone and water to give boric
acid and hydrogens.3,4 Encouraged by this result and as part of a continuing study of decaborane as
reducing agent,5 we examined decaborane in heterogeneous catalytic transfer hydrogenation and found
that a system of decaborane as hydrogen source and methanol as solvent is excellent for the slow
generation of hydrogen. The reaction of alkenes or alkynes with decaborane in methanol in the presence
of Pd/C at room temperature under nitrogen gave the corresponding products in high yields (Table 1). The
reactions are extremely easy to carry out. The optimization of reaction condition allowed us to decrease
the amount of decaborane down to 30 mol% and 10% Pd/C to 20 mol% at room temperature under
nitrogen.6
∗
Corresponding author.
0040-4039/00/$ - see front matter © 2000 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.
PII: S0040-4039(99)02137-1
tetl 16065

888
Table 1
Hydrogenation of alkenes and alkynes using decaborane
We found some chemoselectivity for this reaction. We observed the chemoselectivity against benzyl
protecting group in our hydrogenation condition (entry 8): the selectivity was reported in the presence
of amine as poison.7 Ketone group of acetophenone was not reduce under our reaction condition (entry
9). The reaction seemed to be relatively fast in the unsaturated hydrocarbon with electron-withdrawing
group compared with those with electron-donating groups (Table 1).
We are unsure whether the real hydrogenating agent is hydrogen molecules generated by the decom-
position of decaborane followed by absorption onto the palladium catalyst, or whether it is hydride
absorbed onto the palladium catalyst from decaborane directly. The detailed study of this reaction and its
application to other systems are underway.
In conclusion, we report the hydrogenation of unsaturated hydrocarbons with decaborane in the
presence of Pd/C at rt under nitrogen to give the corresponding saturated alkanes in high yields.
Acknowledgements
The authors wish to acknowledge the financial support of the Korea Research Foundation made in the
program year of 1997.
References
1. Johnstone, R. A. W.; Willby, A. H.; Entwistle, I. D. Chem. Rev. 1985, 85, 129.
2. References are cited in Ref. 1.
3. Tanaka, T.; Mutsuda, T.; Kimijima, K.; Iwasaki, Y. Bull. Chem. Soc. Japan. 1978, 51, 1259.
4. Prashar, J. K.; Lama, D.; Moore, D. E. Tetrahedron Lett. 1993, 34, 42, 6799.
5. (a) For reductive etherification: Lee, S. H.; Park, Y. J.; Yoon, C. M. Tetrahedron Lett. 1999, 40, 6049. (b) For reductive
amination: Bae, J. W.; Lee, S. H.; Cho, Y. J.; Yoon, C. M. J. Chem. Soc., Perkin Trans. 1 2000, 145.

889
6. In a typical experimental procedure, 4-vinylbenzoic acid (100 mg, 0.68 mmol) was stirred with decaborane (25 mg, 0.20
mmol) and 10% Pd/C (20 mg) in methanol (10 ml) at rt under nitrogen for 1 h. After the reaction, acetone and silica gel
was added to the reaction solution and stirred for 10 min to remove the remaining decaborane. The solution was concentrated
under reduced pressure and was chromatographed on a short silica gel pad using a solution of ethyl acetate and n-hexane (1:4)
to give a 4-ethylbenzoic acid in high yield (92%).
7. Sajiki, H.; Kuno, H.; Hirota, K. Tetrahedron Lett. 1998, 39, 7127.