The reduction of organic halides with tributyltin hydride in the presence of a catalytic amount of triethylborane has been studied. (1) Alkyl iodides and alkyl bromides reacted easily with tin hydride at −78°C to give the corresponding hydrocarbons, while alkyl chlorides were sluggish to react and recovered unchanged. (2) The reduction of alkenyl halides such as 1-deuterio-1-iodo-1-dodecene and 1-iodo-1-triethylsilyl-1-dodecene proceeded nonstereospecifically. (3) The reduction of aryl halides with n-Bu3SnH–Et3B system was not so effective as the reduction of alkyl halides and alkenyl halides. Whereas aryl iodides were reduced at room temperature with n-Bu3SnH, aryl bromides hardly reacted with n-Bu3SnH even at 80 °C.

The Michael reaction of chitosan with acrylic acid was carried out successfully, even in water alone as the reaction medium. As a consequence of its good solubility in water, the reaction product, N‐carboxyethylchitosan, showed excellent biodegradable properties with standard activated sludge.

A Michael reaction of chitosan was conducted in water containing acetic acid with various acryl reagents. The degree of substitution could be controlled by temperature, reaction time, and the amount of acryl reagents. Although the modified chitosan derivatives with acrylic acid esters showed water-solubility, that with poly(ethylene glycol) acrylate, however, turned to water-insoluble material by lyophilization. Good biodegradation was observed in modified chitosan derivatives by standard activated sludge.

Treatment of acetylenes with Ph3SnH or Ph3GeH in the presence of a catalytic amount of Pd(PPh3)4 provides the corresponding alkenyltriphenylstannanes or alkenyltriphenylgermanes in good yields.