S.C. Wack - 29-5-2011 at 17:58
There are gentler ways to use formic acid and nickel in reductions, and they have been mentioned by others before, but I don't recall seeing this
posted.
well, part 1 was posted here:
http://www.sciencemadness.org/talk/viewthread.php?tid=10845&...
One needs it to follow Catalytic Reduction by Formic Acid under Pressure. Part II. A Comparison of Copper and Nickel as Catalysts.
Copper, when used as catalyst in conjunction with formic acid, promotes non-nuclear reduction exclusively ;
e.g:, benzaldehyde, benzoic acid, and nitrobenzene are reduced to benzyl alcohol and toluene, to benzene, and to
aniline, respectively. Nickel, however, promotes nuclear reduction, e.g., nitrobenzene and phenol are reduced to
cyclohexylamine and cyclohexanol, respectively.
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[Edited on 30-5-2011 by S.C. Wack]
bbartlog - 30-5-2011 at 05:22
Was surprised to see that they claimed reduction of benzoic acid but then on looking at the details I see that in that case it was just
decarboxylation that occurred. 82% yield of benzene at 200C isn't bad, though!