Reduction of ketones to alcohols using Decaborane B 10 H 14 , pyrrolidine, cesium (III) chloride in methanol.
Jong Woo Bae, Seung Hwan Lee, Yeon Joo Jung, Choon-Ock Maing Yoon and Cheol Min Yoon.
Department of Life Science & Biotechnology, Graduate school of Biotechnology, Korea University, 1, 5-Ka, Anam-Dong Sungbuk-Ku, Seoul, 136-701 Korea, Email: cmyoonkorea.ac.kr
JW Bae, SH Lee, YJ Jung, C.-OM Yoon, CM Yoon, Tetrahedron Lett., 2001, 42, 2137-2139.
Summary
Decaborane is a chemoselective agent that allows the reduction of ketones to alcohols with a high yield. The reagent used is decaborane, pyrrolidine, cerium(II) chloride heptahydrate in methanol.
Some examples that demonstrate the high chemoselectivity of this reagent are: 
The reaction yields exceed 90% in all examples.
