The traditionally cumbersome yet widely-used Birch reduction can now be carried out in a mere minute in air using an optimized mechanochemical approach.
This article has been reviewed according to Science X's editorial process and policies . Editors have highlighted the following attributes while ensuring the content's credibility: Ball milling jar and reagents used in the simplified mechanochemical Birch reduction. Credit: Koji Kubota The Birch reduction is a reaction commonly used to make medicines and bioactive compounds, but the laborious process typically requires that chemists handle liquid ammonia, use cryogenic temperatures, and carry out time-consuming steps. Researchers at the Institute for Chemical Reaction Design and Discovery (WPI-ICReDD) in Hokkaido University have developed a simplified method for performing the Birch reduction that avoids the use of ammonia, can be done at room temperature and in ambient air, and is 20–150 times faster than conventional methods. Their findings are published in the journal Angewandte Chemie International Edition. A number of lithium-based methods for performing the Birch reduction in solution have been previously developed, but since lithium reacts with both air and water, these processes still required complicated reaction setups with an inert atmosphere or dehydrated…