Radical reactions of borohydrides
Abstract
Borohydrides are an important class of reagents in both organic and inorganic chemistry. Though popular as hydride-transfer reagents for reduction, since earlier work from the 1970s, borohydride reagents have also been known to serve as hydrogen-transfer reagents. In pursuit of greener tin hydride substitutes, recent progress has been made to mediate radical C–C bond forming reactions, including Giese reactions, radical carbonylation and addition to HCHO reactions, with borohydride reagents. This review article focuses on state-of-the-art borohydride based radical reactions, also covering earlier work, kinetics and some DFT calculations with respect to the hydrogen transfer mechanism.