Asymmetric epoxidation carbon-oxygen bond formation

Promising examples of the catalytic asymmetric Darzens condensation, which yields an epoxide product via carbon-carbon and carbon-oxygen bond formation, have been reported recently by two groups (Scheme 10.11). Toke and co-workers used crown ether 24 in the reaction to form the a,P-unsaturated ketone 78 [38b] with 64% ee, whereas the Shioiri group used the cinchona-derived salt 3a [52], which resulted in 78 with 69% ee. The latter authors propose a catalytic cycle involving generation of a chiral enolate in situ from an achiral inorganic base... 

The oxidation of the simplest symmetrically substituted alkene, ethylene, is noteworthy in that an asymmetric spiro transition state is observed. When constrained to Cs symmetry with eqnal forming carbon-oxygen bond lengths, the energy increases by only 0.1 kcalmol. The spiro TS has the plane of the HO—ONO (or peracid) at right angles to the axis of the C=C bond. In an idealized spiro TS this angle is exactly 90°. While the formation of snlfoxides from snlhdes by peroxynitrons acid is well-established , epoxidations have not yet been observed in solution. 

R. A. Johnson, K. B. Sharpless, Addition Reactions with Formation of Carbon-Oxygen Bonds (ii) Asymmetric Methods of Epoxidation, in Comprehensive Organic Synthesis (B. M. Trost, I. Fleming, Eds.), Vol. 7, 389, Peigamon Press, Oxford, 1991. 

Addition Reactions with Formation of Carbon-Oxygen Bonds (ii) Asymmetric Mediods of Epoxidation... 

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