Alcohols, epoxy metal hydrides

Using different reagents or under various conditions, 2,3-epoxy alcohols can undergo ring-opening reactions with metallic hydrides, giving 1,3-diols or 1,2-diols. As shown in Scheme 4-16, reduction of 3-substituted 2,3-epoxy alcohols with Red-Al leads to the exclusive formation of 1,3-diols, and this can be applied in the preparation of 1,3-diol compounds.31... 

Catalytic reduction of steroid epoxides received considerable attention before the development of complex metal hydride reducing agents. Hydrogenation of 3 ,4a-epoxy steroids over platinum in acetic acid (Eq. 360), for example, gives rise to a mixture of 3 -hydroxy and 3 -acetoxy steroids.Reductive cleavage thus occur in the same direction as with lithium aluminium hydride in this particular instance —t.r. it gives an axis alcohol. 

The reverse regiocontrol, giving 1,2-diols, is observed with DIBAL-H (diisobutylaluminum hydride). The remarkable effect of titanium tetraisopropoxide as an additive to lithium borohydride has also been reported. In this reaction benzene is a better solvent than THF, probably because a Ti complex using both oxygens in epoxy alcohols is formed in benzene before the hydride attack. Other metal hydrides used include sodium hydrogen telluride (NaHTe) and an ate complex derived from DIBAL-H and butyllithium, both of which reduce epoxides to alcohols, although they have been tested with only a small number of examples. In the former case the reaction may proceed via a 2-hydroxyalkyltellurol intermediate. 

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