>>11533194If you don't have access to isopropanol directly you might have better luck reacting methyllithium with formaldehyde in 2-methyltetrahydrofuran, distill out the alcohol product through a Vigreux column and oxidise it to the acid with potassium dichromate. Then it's just a matter of coupling with N,O-dimethylhydroxylamine using thionyl chloride to activate the carboxylate and get to the Weinreb amide, that you can react with methylmagnesium iodide that you made from methyl iodide and magnesium turnings (don't forget to add some DIBALH to initiate the Grignard formation).
Then once you've worked up the Weinreb addition product it's just a simple reduction to get isopropanol, you can use Raney nickel like
>>11533211 says but I recommend you instead use cobalt boride prepared from cobalt(II) chloride and sodium borohydride, or alternatively lithium aluminium hydride will do the job quicker.
