Fluoride Ion Catalyzed Reduction of Aldehydes and Ketones with Hydrosilanes. Synthetic and Mechanistic Aspects and an Application to the Threo-Directed Reduction of α-Substituted Alkanones

Article abstract of DOI:10.1021/jo00258a003

Reduction of aldehydes and ketones with hydrosilanes proceeded in the presence of a catalytic amount of tetrabutylammonium fluoride or tris(diethylamino)sulfonium difluorotrimethylsilicate in aprotic polar solvents under mild conditions.A significant isotope effect (k_H/k_D = 1.50) was observed in competitive reduction of acetophenone with HSiMe2Ph and DSiMe2Ph.The reaction was of first order in the concentration of an aprotic polar solvent HMPA.Reduction of 2-methylcyclohexanone gave cis-2-methylcyclohexanol with selectivities up to 95percent.The kinetic and stereochemical results suggest that a hexavalent fluorosilicate ^- is involved. α-Alkoxy (acyloxy or dimethylamino) ketones were transformed to threo alcohols in high diastereoselectivities.The reduction was also applied to α-methyl-β-keto amides, RCOCH(MeCONR)2, to afford the corresponding threo alcohols in >98percent selectivity.The threo selectivity is explained in terms of the Felkin-Anh model in which interaction of carbonyl oxygen with a countercation is ideally suppressed.The threo-directed reduction was applied to (R)-1-phenyl-4-(2-tetrahydropyranyloxy)-1-penten-3-one and N-(2-benzoylpropanoyl)piperidine.The resulting threo alcohols were respectively converted into (2R,3S)-2,3-(cyclohexylidenedioxy)butanal, a key intermediate of daunosamine synthesis, and into a pharmacologically useful compound threo-N-(3-hydroxy-2-methyl-3-phenylpropyl)piperidine.