Safer Agents for Chemical Reductions

A new range of safer, air-stable reducing agents has been developed for use in chemical synthesis.

The new lithium aminoborohydride (LB) reagents were developed by Prof. Bakthan Singaram at the University of California, Santa Cruz (USA\) and have been licensed to Aldrich, a division of Sigma-Aldrich Corp. (St. Louis, MO, USA). Aldrich has used its strength in boron chemistry to develop and commercialize Prof. Singaram's technology. The highly reactive reagents, used for reduction and amination, offer a safer alternative to the widely used lithium aluminum hydride (LaA1H4, or LAH).

"LAB reagents extend the toolbox for C-N bond formation while offering the advantages of safety, ease of handling, and simple work-up procedures in typical reductions,” explained Chris Hewitt, director of business development for chemistry at Sigma-Aldrich. "These properties will enable scientists who may be reluctant to use LAH and other reagents to routinely perform chemical reductions in high yields and without difficulty.”

"In addition to showing comparable reactivity to LAH, LAB reagents are safe and do not liberate hydrogen when quenched with water,” added Prof. Singaram. "In undergraduate teaching laboratories, transformations that would seldom be attempted to avoid the use of LAH or borane, such as the reduction of tertiary amides or esters, may become routine experiments with the use of LAB.”

Sigma-Aldrich notes that more than one million scientists use its products. The company operates in 35 countries around the world.





Related Links:
Sigma-Aldrich
Univ. California, SC