A New Reduction of Some Carboxylic Esters with Sodium Borohydride and Zinc Chloride in the Presence of a Tertiary Amine.

T Yamakawa, M Masaki, H Nohira

Index: Yamakawa, Tomio; Masaki, Mitsuo; Nohira, Hiroyuki Bulletin of the Chemical Society of Japan, 1991 , vol. 64, # 9 p. 2730 - 2734

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Citation Number: 56

Abstract

In the presence of a tertiary amine, sodium borohydride (NaBH 4) combined with zinc chloride (ZnCl 2) showed powerful reducing properties and carboxylic esters were smoothly reduced to their corresponding alcohols which were not obtained by reduction with NaBH 4 and ZnCl 2 alone. Tetrahydrofuran (THF) was an efficient solvent, and the effective molar ratio of the reducing agents, NaBH 4: ZnCl 2: tertiary amine, was 2: 1: 1. In particular, ...