DIBALH: from known fundamental to an unusual reaction; chemoselective partial reduction of tertiary amides in the presence of esters

Abstract

This study presents a quick and reliable approach to the chemoselective partial reduction of tertiary amides to aldehydes in the presence of readily reducible ester groups using commercial DIBALH reagent. Moreover, the developed method was also extended to multi-functional molecules bearing ester moieties, which were successfully chemoselectively reduced to the corresponding aldehydes.