Allylic alcohols stereoselective/asymmetric

The emergence of the powerful Sharpless asymmetric epoxida-tion (SAE) reaction in the 1980s has stimulated major advances in both academic and industrial organic synthesis.14 Through the action of an enantiomerically pure titanium/tartrate complex, a myriad of achiral and chiral allylic alcohols can be epoxidized with exceptional stereoselectivities (see Chapter 19 for a more detailed discussion). Interest in the SAE as a tool for industrial organic synthesis grew substantially after Sharpless et al. discovered that the asymmetric epoxidation process can be conducted with catalytic amounts of the enantiomerically pure titanium/tartrate complex simply by adding molecular sieves to the epoxidation reaction mix-... 

The asymmetric oxidation of organic compounds, especially the epoxidation, dihydroxylation, aminohydroxylation, aziridination, and related reactions have been extensively studied and found widespread applications in the asymmetric synthesis of many important compounds. Like many other asymmetric reactions discussed in other chapters of this book, oxidation systems have been developed and extended steadily over the years in order to attain high stereoselectivity. This chapter on oxidation is organized into several key topics. The first section covers the formation of epoxides from allylic alcohols or their derivatives and the corresponding ring-opening reactions of the thus formed 2,3-epoxy alcohols. The second part deals with dihydroxylation reactions, which can provide diols from olefins. The third section delineates the recently discovered aminohydroxylation of olefins. The fourth topic involves the oxidation of unfunc-tionalized olefins. The chapter ends with a discussion of the oxidation of eno-lates and asymmetric aziridination reactions. 

Using a stoichiometric amount of (i ,i )-DIPT as the chiral auxiliary, optically active 2-isoxazolines can be obtained via asymmetric 1,3-dipolar addition of achiral allylic alcohols with nitrile oxides or nitrones bearing an electron-withdrawing group (Scheme 5-53).86a Furthermore, the catalytic 1,3-dipolar cycloaddition of nitrile oxide has been achieved by adding a small amount of 1,4-dioxane (Scheme 5-53, Eq. 3).86b The presence of ethereal compounds such as 1,4-dioxane is crucial for the reproducibly higher stereoselectivity. 

Table 17) with two substituents in position C3 the oxygen transfer by the chiral hydroperoxides occurred from the same enantioface of the double bond, while epoxidation of the (ii)-phenyl-substituted substrates 142c,g,i resulted in the formation of the opposite epoxide enantiomer in excess. In 2000 Hamann and coworkers reported a new saturated protected carbohydrate hydroperoxide 69b , which showed high asymmetric induction in the vanadium-catalyzed epoxidation reaction of 3-methyl-2-buten-l-ol. The ee of 90% obtained was a milestone in the field of stereoselective oxygen transfer with optically active hydroperoxides. Unfortunately, the tertiary allylic alcohol 2-methyl-3-buten-2-ol was epoxidized with low enantioselectivity (ee 18%) with the same catalytic system . 

Chiral alkenyl and cycloalkenyl oxiranes are valuable intermediates in organic synthesis [38]. Their asymmetric synthesis has been accomplished by several methods, including the epoxidation of allyl alcohols in combination with an oxidation and olefination [39a], the epoxidation of dienes [39b,c], the chloroallylation of aldehydes in combination with a 1,2-elimination [39f-h], and the reaction of S-ylides with aldehydes [39i]. Although these methods are efficient for the synthesis of alkenyl oxiranes, they are not well suited for cycloalkenyl oxiranes of the 56 type (Scheme 1.3.21). Therefore we had developed an interest in the asymmetric synthesis of the cycloalkenyl oxiranes 56 from the sulfonimidoyl-substituted homoallyl alcohols 7. It was speculated that the allylic sulfoximine group of 7 could be stereoselectively replaced by a Cl atom with formation of corresponding chlorohydrins 55 which upon base treatment should give the cycloalkenyl oxiranes 56. The feasibility of a Cl substitution of the sulfoximine group had been shown previously in the case of S-alkyl sulfoximines [40]. 

Asymmetric epoxidation of ailylic alcohols.1 Epoxidation of allylic alcohols with r-bulyl hydroperoxide in the presence of titanium(lV) isopropoxide as the metal catalyst and either diethyl D- or diethyl L-tartrate as the chiral ligand proceeds in > 90% stereoselectivity, which is independent of the substitution pattern of the allylic alcohol but dependent on the chirality of the tartrate. Suggested standard conditions are 2 equivalents of anhydrous r-butyl hydroperoxide with 1 equivalent each of the alcohol, the tartrate, and the titanium catalyst. Lesser amounts of the last two components can be used for epoxidation of reactive allylic alcohols, but it is important to use equivalent amounts of these two components. Chemical yields are in the range of 70-85%. 

Asymmetric reduction of a,fi-enon s. This combination of reagents (1 1) in conjunction with N-cthylaniline (2 equivalents) reduces alkyl aryl ketones to alcohols with high stereoselectivity.1 Under these conditions 2,/1-unsaturated ketones arc reduced to optically active (S)-allylic alcohols. Optical yields of 80 98% have been reported for open-chain enones. Reduction of cyclic enones is somewhat less efficient. The method was used to reduce 1 to 2, which has been used as an intermediate in an anthracyclinone synthesis.2... 

Asymmetric epoxidation, dihydroxylation, aminohydroxylation, and aziridination reactions have been reviewed.62 The use of the Sharpless asymmetric epoxidation method for the desymmetrization of mesa compounds has been reviewed.63 The conformational flexibility of nine-membered ring allylic alcohols results in transepoxide stereochemistry from syn epoxidation using VO(acac)2-hydroperoxide systems in which the hydroxyl group still controls the facial stereoselectivity.64 The stereoselectivity of side-chain epoxidation of a series of 22-hydroxy-A23-sterols with C(19) side-chains incorporating allylic alcohols has been investigated, using m-CPBA or /-BuOOH in the presence of VO(acac)2 or Mo(CO)6-65 The erythro-threo distributions of the products were determined and the effect of substituents on the three positions of the double bond (gem to the OH or cis or trans at the remote carbon) partially rationalized by molecular modelling. 

Asymmetric reduction of a,/ -unsaturated carbonyl compounds using chiral complexes (Section 5.4.1, p. 521) could feasibly lead to optically active allylic alcohols. Other reducing agents which have some merit of regioselectivity, but not stereoselectivity, are sodium cyanoborohydride,244 and sodium boro-hydride in the presence of lanthanide salts.245... 

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. 

So far, chiral lithium amides for asymmetric deprotonation have found use only with a few types of substrates. The following sections deal with deprotonation of epoxides to yield chiral allylic alcohols in high enantiomeric excess, deprotonation of ketones, deprotonation of tricarbonylchromium arene complexes and miscellaneous stereoselective deprotonations. These sections are followed by sections in which various chiral lithium amides used in stereoselective deprotonations have been collected and various epoxides that have been stereoselectively deprotonated. The review ends with a summary of useful synthetic methods for chiral lithium amide precursors. 

Asymmetric Intramolecular Hydrosilation. Intramolecular hydrosilation of allylic alcohols followed by oxidation is a convenient method for the stereoselective preparation of 1,3-diols. An enantioselective version is achieved by use of diene-free BINAP-Rh+ (eq 6). Both silyl ethers derived from cinnamyl alcohol and its cis isomer give (iJ)-l-phenylpropane-l,3-diol in high ee regardless of alkene geometry. 

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