Halide reductions in aqueous systems

22 February 2005

A recent publication by Kita and coworkers* described the reduction of alkyl halides (iodides, bromides and chlorides) in aqueous alcohols, using hypophosphorous acid and a watersoluble radical initiator.

Of course, from a process chemistry perspective, a nice attribute of this is that essentially pure product can be obtained by extraction into organic solvent. A downside is that at least 0.5 mole equivalents of initiator (available from Wako Pure Chemical Industries, in Japan) appeared to be required.

*Y. Kita et al., Tetrahedron Letters 2004, 45, 8927-8929.