Sodium Borohydride Reduction of Esters in Toluene Using the All-at-Once Addition Method with an Alcohol Activator.

Authors

Toshinobu Korenaga, Reito Endo, Mayu Ishida, Mizuki Nakagawa, Yuto Honma

Published in

The Journal of organic chemistry. Oct 20, 2026. Epub Oct 20, 2026.

Abstract

The sodium borohydride (NaBH4) reduction of esters in toluene (also in 2-MeTHF and CPME) has been accomplished using 2-methoxyethanol (2-ME) as an activator. In previous mixed-solvent methods, it was necessary to add methanol dropwise to NaBH4 to suppress the formation of inactive species. In contrast, the present method enables the all-at-once addition of 2-ME. The most plausible active species is likely to be NaBH(OCH2CH2OCH3)3, and its reducing ability was assessed by DFT calculations.

PMID:
42897946
Bibliographic data and abstract were imported from PubMed on 20 Oct 2026.

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