The Barton–McCombie deoxygenation is an organic reaction in which a hydroxy functional group in an organic compound is replaced by a hydrogen to give an alkyl group. It is named after British chemists Sir Derek Harold Richard Barton and Stuart W. McCombie.
The reaction mechanism consists of a catalytic radical initiation step and a propagation step. The alcohol (1) is first converted into a reactive carbonothioyl intermediate such as a thionoester or xanthate 2. Heating of AIBN results in its homolytic cleavage, generating two 2-cyanoprop-2-yl radicals 9 which each abstract a proton from tributylstannane 3 to generate tributylstannyl radicals 4 and inactive 10. The tributyltin radical abstracts the xanthate group from 2 by attack of 4 at the sulfur atom with concurrent homolytic cleavage of the C-S π bond. This leaves a carbon centered radical that forms a C-O π bond through homolytic cleavage of the R-O σ bond, giving alkyl radical 5 and tributyltin xanthate 7. The sulfur tin bond in this compound is very stable and provides the driving force for this reaction. The alkyl radical 5 then abstracts a hydrogen atom from a new molecule of tributylstannane generating the desired deoxygenated product (6) and a new radical species ready for propagation.
The main disadvantage of this reaction is the use of tributylstannane which is toxic, expensive and difficult to remove from the reaction mixture. One alternative is the use of tributyltin oxide as the radical source and poly(methylhydridesiloxane) (PMHS) as the hydrogen source. Phenyl chlorothionoformate used as the starting material ultimately generates carbonyl sulfide.
An even more convenient hydrogen donor is provided by trialkylborane-water complexes such as trimethylborane contaminated with small amounts of water.
In another variation the reagent is the imidazole 1,1'-thiocarbonyldiimidazole (TCDI), for example in the total synthesis of pallescensin B. TCDI is especially good to primary alcohols because there is no resonance stabilization of the xanthate because the nitrogen lonepair is involved in the aromatic sextet.
