Well, this is my first post - and I'm here to ask if anyone has attempted the direct reduction of the benzyl -OH of pseudoephedrine to afford methamphetamine using Et3SiH / TFA ?
It's a rxn used to reduce aryl carbonyl groups back to the methylene, however, as it goes through the alcohol intermediate, you'd think this would work? If no one writes back I'll try it out and post my write up. Should go 99% or so according to the paper. Not so bad, using 2.2 equiv. Et3SiH + 10-15 equiv TFA - stir.. rxn over in 15 mins..
off to the pharmacy..