Zinc borohydride - a reducing agent with high potential

Abstract

Several new and novel applications of Zinc borohydride, a non-conventional hydride reducing agent, have been demonstrated for efficient chemo- and regioselective reductions of various important functionalities. These include : (a) chemoselective reduction of aldehydes over ketones; (b) chemoselective reduction of saturated ketones and conjugated aldehydes over conjugated enones; (c) chemoselective reduction of aliphatic ester over aromatic one; (d) chemoselective reduction of carboxylic acids; (e) chemoselective reduction of 2-nitrocycloalkanones to 2-nitrocycloalkanols; (f) highly selective reduction of monosubstituted conjugated nitroalkenes to the corresponding nitroalkanes and disubstituted ones to the corresponding oximes; (g) regio- and stereoselective reductive cleavage of unsymmetrical alkyl-substituted epoxide to the less-substituted alcohol; (h) regioselective 1,2-reduction of conjugated ketones and aldehydes; and (i) regioselective hydration of alkenes to the less-substituted alcohols.