Abstract
Ketones and aldehydes are conveniently and rapidly reduced to the corresponding alcohols in good yields using sodium borohydride under sealed-tube microwave conditions in either 95% ethanol or water. In purely aqueous systems, highly aliphatic substrates are sluggish, but this can be overcome by introducing sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS) at the critical micelle concentration. With a 2:1 substrate/borohydride ratio and a reaction temperature of 100 °C, reduction is typically complete within 1 min in 95% ethanol and 5 min in water/SDS. The methodology is well suited for parallel and combinatorial synthetic approaches.
GRAPHICAL ABSTRACT
![](/cms/asset/a7b5332d-fb66-4795-8561-883bd54fe819/lsyc_a_551171_o_uf0001.gif)
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
The authors gratefully acknowledge Allegheny College and the National Science Foundation (CCLI 0837640) for generous support of this project.
Notes
a Molar ratios of substrate/borohydride are 2:1 for 95% ethanol and 3:2 for aqueous systems.
b Calculated using ACD/Labs Software v11.02 via SciFinder.
c 94% after 5 min.
d 94% after 30 min.
e 98% after 5 min.
f 92% after 5 min in tetrahydrofuran.