Allylic alcohol from dimethyl-tartrate

The known allylic alcohol 9 derived from protected dimethyl tartrate is exposed to Sharpless asymmetric epoxidation conditions with (-)-diethyl D-tartrate. The reaction yields exclusively the anti epoxide 10 in 77 % yield. In contrast to the above mentioned epoxidation of the ribose derived allylic alcohol, in this case epoxidation of 9 with MCPBA at 0 °C resulted in a 65 35 mixture of syn/anti diastereomers. The Sharpless epoxidation of primary and secondary allylic alcohols discovered in 1980 is a powerful reagent-controlled reaction.12 The use of titanium(IV) tetraisopropoxide as catalyst, tert-butylhydro-peroxide as oxidant, and an enantiopure dialkyl tartrate as chiral auxiliary accomplishes the epoxidation of allylic alcohols with excellent stereoselectivity. If the reaction is kept absolutely dry, catalytic amounts of the dialkyl tartrate(titanium)(IV) complex are sufficient. 

With the fast-reacting enantiomer there is good diaster-eoselection in this reaction too and the main product is 25 in a 98 2 ratio. The slow-reacting enantiomer is less selective giving a 38 62 ratio. It is not uncommon for allylic alcohols in this context to be drawn in a different orientation -25a is merely an alternative drawing of 25b. How much faster the fast reaction is depends on the nature of the catalyst. The selectivity increases from dimethyl- to diethyl- to diisopropyl tartrate from 19 to 36 to 104.18... 

The Sharpless epoxidation of allylic alcohols with tert-butylhydroperoxide and titanium(IV) isoproxide has been carried out with a polymeric tartrate made from tartaric acid and 1,8-octanediol.114 The yield of epoxide (92%) was comparable with that when dimethyl tartrate was used (91%), but the 79% ee was lower than the 98% ee found with the dimethyl tartrate. It may be possible to raise the ee by further variations in the structure of the polymer. The heterogenization of a catalyst for a homogeneous reaction often requires optimization to obtain comparable or higher yields and stereospecificity. 

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