I can't seem to find much information on this topic but how does aluminium amalgam work as a reducing agent?
Could it be used to deoxygenate a carboxylic acid or amino acid to the corresponding alcohol or alkane?
If not , why not?
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Sign up to join this communityI can't seem to find much information on this topic but how does aluminium amalgam work as a reducing agent?
Could it be used to deoxygenate a carboxylic acid or amino acid to the corresponding alcohol or alkane?
If not , why not?
Could aluminium amalgam be used to deoxygenate a carboxylic acid or amino acid to the corresponding alcohol or alkane?
No. Aluminium amalgam has been used to selectively reduce other groups in molecules containing a carboxylic acid group, while preserving the carboxylic acid group.
See for example in Industrial Organic Nitrogen Compounds at page 139:
Some pyridine-carboxylic acids have been reduced to the corresponding dihydropyridine-carboxylic acids with aluminium amalgam.
See also the patent Polyene carboxylic acids and esters and manufacture thereof where aluminium amalgam is suggested as a mild reducing agent which preserves the carboxylic acid or ester group.