TRANSITION METAL CATALYZED/NaBH4/MeOH REDUCTION OF NITRO, CARBONYL, AROMATICS TO HYDROGENATED PRODUCTS AT ROOM TEMPERATURE

Reduction of nitrobenzene, 4-ethyl nitrobenzene, 4-isopropyl nitrobenzene, 4-nitro 1-phenyl acetate, acetophenone, with CuCl2/MeOH/NaBH4 provided hydrogenated products in quantitative yields. In order to evaluate the best catalytic systems various transition metal catalysts were examined for the first time and CuCl2 catalysts was superactive system. And a solvent system was also studied with methanol being the best solvent evolved. The reactions were exceedingly clean with no byproduct formation, negating the need for further purification. Most reactions provided moderate to excellent yields.