Reduction and Reductive Deuteration of Tertiary Amides Mediated by Sodium Dispersions with Distinct Proton Donor-Dependent Chemoselectivity.

A practical and scalable single electron transfer reduction mediated by sodium dispersions has been developed for the reduction and reductive deuteration of tertiary amides. The chemoselectivity of this method highly depends on the nature of the proton donor. The challenging reduction via C-N bond cleavage has been achieved using Na/EtOH, affording alcohol products, while the use of Na/NaOH/H2O leads to the formation of amines via selective C-O scission. Sodium dispersions with high specific surface areas are crucial to obtain high yields and good chemoselectivity. This new method tolerates a range of tertiary amides. Moreover, the corresponding reductive deuterations mediated by Na/EtOD- d1 and Na/NaOH/D2O afford useful α,α-dideuterio alcohols and α,α-dideuterio amines with an excellent deuterium content.