<p dir="ltr">Borane-ammonia (BH₃-NH₃) has played an essential role in shaping and promoting the field of organic chemistry. However, we believe that the potential applications of BA in organic reductions have yet to be investigated. Our studies aimed to investigate BA as a reducing agent in organic reactions and to delve into the associated reduction mechanisms. In the second chapter of our research, we discovered that a combination of borane-ammonia and titanium tetrachloride (TiCl₄) has been explored as a versatile system for reducing various carbonyl compounds. By using BA with a small amount of TiCl₄ catalyst (10 mol%) in diethyl ether (Et₂O), we reduced different aryl and alkyl ketones into secondary alcohols at room temperature in just 30 minutes. This method is much faster than traditional uncatalyzed conditions, which usually take 24 hours or more to achieve the same reduction, and it does so without impacting other functional groups. Substituted cycloalkanones are selectively reduced to the thermodynamically favored product. Our deuterium labeling experiments found that the most probable pathway involves the hydroboration mechanism involving ketones and borane-ammonia in the presence of TiCl₄.</p><p><br></p><p dir="ltr">A slight variation in this chemical system can significantly impact the deoxyhalogenation process of aryl aldehydes, ketones, carboxylic acids, and esters. This process involves using a metal halide Lewis acid as a carbonyl activator, halogen carrier, and borane-ammonia. The selectivity of this process is determined by balancing the carbocation intermediate's stability with the Lewis acid's acidity. The choice of solvent and Lewis acid depends on the substituents present, and different substitution patterns have been explored. These principles have also been applied to selectively convert alcohols into alkyl halides. Furthermore, this system is used to selectively deoxygenate carbonyls of aldehydes and ketones into methyl and methylene hydrocarbons. The substituents on the benzene ring play a significant role in the deoxygenation process of carbonyl carbons in aldehydes and ketones.</p><p><br></p><p dir="ltr">In the third chapter of the study, various applications of the titanium system are examined. The TiCl₄/BH₃-NH₃ system was used to directly reduce a range of carboxylic acids to the corresponding alcohols at room temperature with good to excellent yields. This reduction method was achieved by adjusting the stoichiometry of borane-ammonia. This process is tolerant to various potentially reactive functional groups, such as N-protected amino acids, enabling the selective reduction of acids in the presence of amides and nitriles. Further, the titanium system was used to deoxygenation aromatic and aliphatic carboxylic esters into ethers. The ratio of borane-ammonia and catalyst controls the process. This method is the first practical borane-mediated process compatible with many sensitive functional groups and can convert challenging aromatic acid esters into ethers. Using BF₃–Et₂O as the catalyst changes the result products, reducing the esters to alcohols instead.</p><p><br></p><p dir="ltr">In the fourth chapter of our exploration, we looked at various applications of this system that involved reducing aliphatic and aromatic nitriles to primary amines. This was achieved by using 2.0 equivalents of <a href="" target="_blank">BH₃-NH₃ </a>and a molar equivalent of TiCl₄. We also found that the TiCl₄/BA system in dichloroethane (DCE) under reflux temperature efficiently reduces (deoxygenates) a range of aromatic and aliphatic primary, secondary, and tertiary carboxamides. We adjusted the catalyst and reductant stoichiometry accordingly, and the resulting amines were obtained in high yields using a simple acid-base workup.</p>

<p dir="ltr">Reported herein is a brief summary regarding the previous syntheses of borane-amines, newly developed protocols to synthesize borane-amines, and the material and synthetic applications utilizing borane-amines. Methods to generate borane-amines typically relied on a metathesis-dehydrogenation reaction between ammonium salts and metal borohydrides in organic solvent, typically hazardous tetrahydrofuran (THF). However, due to the poor solubility of inorganic salts in organic solvent, stirring of the reaction mixture becomes difficult and, in turn, scalability is made challenging. We report two new methods to generate borane-amines that both rely on the hydroboration of sodium borohydride and a carbonyl activator, followed by the S_N2-type reaction with the amine to form the requisite borane-amine. The activator for our procedures are either 1) gaseous carbon dioxide or 2) water/ethyl acetate system. The CO₂ mediated protocol was applied to a variety of 1°-, 2°-, 3°-, and heteroaromatic amines as well as phosphines to form the corresponding borane adducts (73-99%). Water was also found to be a green, compatible activator. Interestingly, we had swapped environmentally and health hazardous THF with ethyl acetate (EtOAc) and found the reaction had still proceeded with competitive conversion of amines to the borane-amines (72-97%). The robustness of this reaction was demonstrated with a 1.1 mol scale synthesis of borane pyridine with 87% yield. With increased accessibility of borane-amines established, we sought to investigate their potential applications, including testing their hypergolic properties. Additionally, we utilized borane-ammonia for a sequential reduction/Friedel-Crafts alkylation of benzyl carbonyls. Traditionally an alkyl halide, the scope of the electrophilic aromatic substitution reaction has widened to include alcohols and carbonyls as potential Friedel-Crafts reactants. Few reports exist for the arylation of aldehydes and ketones, while no precedence exists for the arylation of carboxylic acids and esters. Our group previously reported that TiCl₄ is capable of eliminating oxygen from benzyl alcohols, forming a carbocation intermediate. Theoretically, the carbocation formed from TiCl₄ and benzyl alcohols would be vulnerable from attacks from other nucleophiles, including pi bonds from arenes. This was indeed proven to be the case when benzyl alcohol was reacted in 1 equiv. TiCl₄with benzene as the solvent and diphenylmethane was obtained as the sole product. By including borane-ammonia as a hydride source, various aryl carbonyls and aryl carbinols were also reduced to the corresponding alcohol <i>in situ</i>, enabling these substrates to participate in Friedel-Crafts alkylation.</p>