Resumen de Semimicro/Microscale Adaptation of the Cobalt Chloride/Sodium Borohydride Reduction of Methyl Oleate

James R. McKee, Murray Zanger, Carmine Chiariello, James A. McKee, Walter Dorfner, Elisabetta Fasella, Yumee Koo

• The reduction of alkenes usually involves a hydrogen source and a catalyst. This process is both expensive and not well-suited for a large teaching laboratory. This paper presents an alternative procedure using a mixture of cobalt chloride and sodium borohydride to achieve the reduction of methyl oleate to methyl stearate. This procedure is safe, simple, and inexpensive. NMR spectroscopy is used as an analytical tool to determine the extent of the reduction.