The traditionally cumbersome yet widely-used Birch reduction can now be carried out in a mere minute in air using an optimized mechanochemical approach. The Birch reduction is a reaction commonly used ...

A team of chemists at the University of Pittsburgh has developed a new way to conduct Birch reductions that does not require the use of ammonia, thus avoiding a dangerous procedure. In their paper ...

To break compounds’ aromaticity, chemists commonly rely on the 74-year-old Birch reduction, which uses sodium metal and ammonia. However, the components’ moisture-sensitive nature—requiring ...

The latest short science news items from C&EN. The new method takes 15 min to 1 h at 10 °C and can be scaled up to make over 50 g of product. The researchers used it to transform 37 carboxylic acids, ...