Radical reactions of borohydrides.

Borohydrides are an important class of reagents in both organic and inorganic chemistry. Though popular as hydride-transfer reagents for reduction, since earlier work from the 1970s, borohydride reagents have also been known to serve as hydrogen-transfer reagents. In pursuit of greener tin hydride substitutes, recent progress has been made to mediate radical C-C bond forming reactions, including Giese reactions, radical carbonylation and addition to HCHO reactions, with borohydride reagents. This review article focuses on state-of-the-art borohydride based radical reactions, also covering earlier work, kinetics and some DFT calculations with respect to the hydrogen transfer mechanism.