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Updated: Jan 19, 2026

Controlled Photoredox Ring-Opening Polymerization of O-Carboxyanhydrides Mediated by Ni/Zn Complexes
Published on: November 21, 2017
Nickel-Catalyzed Selective Reduction of Carboxylic Acids to Aldehydes
Andrei V Iosub1, Štefan Moravčík1, Carl-Johan Wallentin2
1Medicinal Chemistry, Research and Early Development Cardiovascular, Renal and Metabolism , BioPharmaceuticals R&D, AstraZeneca , Gothenburg , Sweden.
Abstract:
The direct reduction of carboxylic acids to aldehydes is a fundamental transformation in organic synthesis. The combination of an air-stable Ni precatalyst, dimethyl dicarbonate as an activator, and silane reductant effects this reduction for a wide variety of substrates, including pharmaceutically relevant structures, in good yields and with no overreduction to alcohols. Moreover, this methodology is scalable, allows access to deuterated aldehydes, and is also compatible with one-pot utilization of the aldehyde products.
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