Sodium Borohydride Cas No 16940-66-2

Sodium borohydride (NaBH4) is a versatile reducing agent used in a number of industrial processes. Major applications include organic and pharmaceutical synthesis, wastewater treatment, and paper pulp bleaching. Sodium borohydride plays such a significant role in organic synthesis. It is a good reducing agent which has stable performance and selective reduction. It can be used as the reducing agents of aldehydes, ketones and acid chlorides; also as foaming agent for plastic materials, hydrogenating agent of making dihydrostreptomycin, intermediate of making potassium borohydride, raw materials in synthesizing borane, as well as the treatment agent of paper industry and mercury-containing waste water.
Sodium borohydride provides organic chemists a very convenient and mild means for reduction of aldehydes and ketones. Before this, people usually use metal/alcohol approach to reduce carbonyl compound. Sodium borohydride enables the reduction of carbonyl of aldehydes and ketones under very mild conditions to produce primary alcohols and secondary alcohols. Reduction procedure is as below: First dissolve the substrate in a solvent (typically methanol or ethanol), then cool with an ice bath. Finally add sodium borohydride powder to the mixture until the reaction is completed. The reaction process can be monitored by thin layer chromatography. If the solvent is not an alcohol, we need to additionally supply methanol or ethanol along with the reaction. Sodium borohydride is a reducing agent with medium strength, and thus exhibiting good chemical selectivity. It only reduces active aldehyde and ketone carbonyl group, and does not react with the ester, amide.