Calcium amidoborane, a new reagent for chemoselective reduction of α,β-unsaturated aldehydes and ketones to allylic alcohols

Abstract

Calcium amidoborane (Ca(NH₂BH₃)₂, CaAB) is a new member of the borohydride family, which possesses interesting dehydrogenation features. CaAB also exhibits superior performance in chemoselective reduction. Our experimental results show that CaAB can reduce α,β-unsaturated carbonyl compounds chemoselectively to the corresponding allylic alcohols at ambient temperature.