Acyclic asymmetric epoxidation

Without question, the most significant advance in the use of sulfur-centered nucleophiles was made by Shibasaki, who discovered that 10 mol% of a novel gallium-lithium-bis(binaphthoxide) complex 5 could catalyze the addition of tert-butylthiol to various cyclic and acyclic meso-epoxides with excellent enantioselectiv-ities and in good yields (Scheme 7.11) [21], This work builds on Shibasaki s broader studies of heterobimetallic complexes, in which dual activation of both the electrophile and the nucleophile is invoked [22]. This method has been applied to an efficient asymmetric synthesis of the prostaglandin core through an oxidation/ elimination sequence (Scheme 7.12). 

Related catalytic enantioselective processes It is worthy of note that the powerful Ti-catalyzed asymmetric epoxidation procedure of Sharpless [27] is often used in the preparation of optically pure acyclic allylic alcohols through the catalytic kinetic resolution of easily accessible racemic mixtures [28]. When the catalytic epoxidation is applied to cyclic allylic substrates, reaction rates are retarded and lower levels of enantioselectivity are observed. Ru-catalyzed asymmetric hydrogenation has been employed by Noyori to effect the resolution of five- and six-membered allylic carbinols [29] in this instance, as with the Ti-catalyzed procedure, the presence of an unprotected hydroxyl function is required. Perhaps the most efficient general procedure for the enantioselective synthesis of this class of cyclic allylic ethers is that recently developed by Trost and co-workers, involving Pd-catalyzed asymmetric additions of alkoxides to allylic esters [30]. 

ACYCLIC STEREOSELECTION. II ASYMMETRIC EPOXIDATION AND DIHYDROXYLATION OF OLEFINIC DOUBLE BONDS.277... 

In the metal-free epoxidation of enones and enoates, practically useful yields and enantioselectivity have been achieved by using catalysts based on chiral electrophilic ketones, peptides, and chiral phase-transfer agents. (E)-configured acyclic enones are comparatively easy substrates that can be converted to enantiomeri-cally highly enriched epoxides by all three methods. Currently, chiral ketones/ dioxiranes constitute the only catalyst system that enables asymmetric and metal-free epoxidation of (E)-enoates. There seems to be no metal-free method for efficient asymmetric epoxidation of achiral (Z)-enones. Exocyclic (E)-enones have been epoxidized with excellent ee using either phase-transfer catalysis or polyamino acids. In contrast, generation of enantiopure epoxides from normal endocyclic... 

Yang s chiral ketones 75 have also been used as catalysts in the kinetic resolution of acyclic secondary allyl silyl ethers <2001JOC4619>. Dioxiranes generated in situ from dehydrocholic acid derivatives 122 and Oxone have been used in the asymmetric epoxidations of cinnamic acid derivatives with product ee s up to 95% <2001TA1113, 2002JOC5802> and unfunctionalized olefins (up to 98% ee) <2006T4482>. 

Later on, Liang and coworkers successfully employed trichloroisocyanuric acid (TCCA) as a new type of stoichiometric oxidant for the asymmetric epoxidation of acyclic enones in the presence of 10 mol% of catalyst 4 (Scheme 5.6) [9]. The desired epoxy ketones were obtained in good yields (69-93%) with high enantioselectivities (73-93% ee) under nonaqueous solid-liquid conditions [9b]. In this reaction, TCCA reacts with an inorganic base (KOH) to form a hypochlorite salt, which is transferred to the organic phase by the phase-transfer catalyst and oxidizes... 

NAP-MgO acts as a bifunctional heterogeneous catalyst for the Claisen-Schmidt condensation (CSC) of benzaldehydes with acetophenones to yield chalcones, followed by asymmetric epoxidation (AE) to afford chiral epoxy ketones in moderate to good yields and impressive enantioselectivities (ee s). NAP-MgO, in combination with the chiral auxiliary (11 ,21 )-(- -)-1,2-diphenyl-1,2-ethylenediamine (DPED), catalyzed the asymmetric Michael addition of malonates to cyclic and acyclic enones. 

The asymmetric epoxidation of acyclic )S,)3-disubstituted o, )3-enones in acetonitrile, by peracetic acid and catalysed by an iron complex in which Fe(OTf)2 was coordinated by two 2-[l-(l-naphthyl)-2-naphthyl]-l,10-phenanthroline ligands (35) (R = m-xylyl), to the corresponding Q ,j8-epoxyketones with yield up to 88% and up to 92% ee was achieved. The epoxy ketone was further converted to functionalized )8-keto-aldehydes with an all-carbon quaternary centre." The transfer hydrogenation of acetophenone to 1-phenylethanol in isopropanol in the absence of added base was catalysed by a five-coordinated Fe(II) complex (36) and certain analogues. ... 

The asymmetric epoxidation of several acyclic a,/8-unsaturated ketones (RiC =C—COR ) in THF under aerobic conditions by H2O2—urea in the presence of l,6-diazabicyclo[5.4.0]undec-7-ene (DBU) to the corresponding epoxides in high yield (87-99%) was achieved using 11-/253,7/15 -10 heptapeptide (117) as the catalyst. Enantiomeric excess was excellent (99% ee) for R = Ph and R = 2-furanyl but moderate to high (72-88% ee) in other cases the yields were low for R = alkyl. ... 

List and coworkers reported an oxa-Michael reaction with aliphatic acyclic enones 94 using hydrogen peroxide as oxygen source [111]. Treatment of enones with catalytic amounts of cinchona alkaloid derived primary amine 33 (as its salt), followed by excess hydrogen peroxide furnished the intermediate peroxy-hemiketals with high yields and stereoselectivities. Subsequent reduction of these compounds led to the corresponding p-hydroxyketones 124 without loss of enantioselectivity (Scheme 33.36). The same research group developed the asymmetric epoxidation of enones with excellent results [112],... 

The identification of a fundamentally new reaction such as the asymmetric epoxidation of allylic alcohols substantively alters the landscape of chemical synthesis such discoveries not only augment the available tactics for synthesis, but they also impact on strategy. Sharpless and Masamune elegantly demonstrated how the asymmetric epoxidation of acyclic alcohols can be utilized to access all configurational isomers of i-hexoses as exemplified by the synthesis of r-Glucose (55) (Scheme 9.6) [77]. 

Recent syntheses of steroids apply efficient strategies in which open-chain or monocyclic educts with appropiate side-chains are stereoselectively cyclized in one step to a tri- or tetracyclic steroid precursor. These procedures mimic the biochemical synthesis scheme where acyclic, achiral squalene is first oxidized to a 2,3-epoxide containing one chiral carbon atom and then enzymatically cyclized to lanostetol with no less than seven asymmetric centres (W.S. Johnson, 1%8, 1976 E.E. van Tamden, 1968). 

Until this work, the reactions between the benzyl sulfonium ylide and ketones to give trisubstituted epoxides had not previously been used in asymmetric sulfur ylide-mediated epoxidation. It was found that good selectivities were obtained with cyclic ketones (Entry 6), but lower diastereo- and enantioselectivities resulted with acyclic ketones (Entries 7 and 8), which still remain challenging substrates for sulfur ylide-mediated epoxidation. In addition they showed that aryl-vinyl epoxides could also be synthesized with the aid of a,P-unsaturated sulfonium salts lOa-b (Scheme 1.4). 

The subsequent epoxidation of these in situ formed allylic tertiary alcohols yielded the corresponding syn-e oxy alcohols with high levels of diastereo- and enantioselectivity, thus providing a novel one-pot asymmetric synthesis of acyclic chiral epoxyalcohols via a domino vinylation epoxidation reaction (Scheme 4.17). ... 

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