Sodium borohydride-nickel chloride hexahydrate in EtOH/PEG-400 as an efficient and recyclable catalytic system for the reduction of alkenes

Abstract

An efficient, safe and one-pot convenient catalytic system has been developed for the reduction of alkenes using NaBH 4 -NiCl 2 $6H 2 O in EtOH/PEG-400 under mild conditions. In this catalytic system, a variety of alkenes (including trisubstituted alkene a-pinene) were well reduced and the Ni catalyst could be recycled.Scheme 1 Reduction of alkenes using NaBH 4 -NiCl 2 $6H 2 O in EtOH/ PEG-400 system.

Raney Ni as Recyclable and Selective Catalyst for the Reduction of α‐Pinene to cis‐Pinane with NaBH4 at Room Temperature

“…to 0.5 equiv., the conversion of α‐pinene increased from 70% to 99% (entries 2, 3). However, further increase of the amounts of NaBH 4 led to the conversion of α‐pinene decreased (entris 3–5), which was probably due to excess amounts of NaBH 4 causing the catalyst active center to be passivated . In the absence of Raney Ni catalyst (entry 6), a controlled experiment afforded only a conversion of 4%, demonstrating the importance role of Raney Ni catalyst for the reaction.…”