One-Minute Mechanochemical Process Simplifies Birch Reduction.

Researchers at Hokkaido University have developed a simplified and eco-friendly method for performing the Birch reduction, a reaction commonly used to make medicines and bioactive compounds. The new method avoids the use of ammonia, can be done at room temperature and in ambient air, and is 20-150 times faster than conventional methods. The key to this strategy is using a ball mill to shake reactants rapidly in a small metal jar along with a metal ball that smashes the solid reactants together. The process was successfully tested with a wide variety of organic compounds, including pharmaceutical intermediates and other bioactive molecules, and completed in an astonishingly quick one minute.