Asymmetric epoxidation chiral hydroperoxides

The first practical method for asymmetric epoxidation of primary and secondary allylic alcohols was developed by K.B. Sharpless in 1980 (T. Katsuki, 1980 K.B. Sharpless, 1983 A, B, 1986 see also D. Hoppe, 1982). Tartaric esters, e.g., DET and DIPT" ( = diethyl and diisopropyl ( + )- or (— )-tartrates), are applied as chiral auxiliaries, titanium tetrakis(2-pro-panolate) as a catalyst and tert-butyl hydroperoxide (= TBHP, Bu OOH) as the oxidant. If the reaction mixture is kept absolutely dry, catalytic amounts of the dialkyl tartrate-titanium(IV) complex are suflicient, which largely facilitates work-up procedures (Y. Gao, 1987). Depending on the tartrate enantiomer used, either one of the 2,3-epoxy alcohols may be obtained with high enantioselectivity. The titanium probably binds to the diol grouping of one tartrate molecule and to the hydroxy groups of the bulky hydroperoxide and of the allylic alcohol... 

The Sharpless-Katsuki asymmetric epoxidation reaction (most commonly referred by the discovering scientists as the AE reaction) is an efficient and highly selective method for the preparation of a wide variety of chiral epoxy alcohols. The AE reaction is comprised of four key components the substrate allylic alcohol, the titanium isopropoxide precatalyst, the chiral ligand diethyl tartrate, and the terminal oxidant tert-butyl hydroperoxide. The reaction protocol is straightforward and does not require any special handling techniques. The only requirement is that the reacting olefin contains an allylic alcohol. 

The idea of double asymmetric induction is also applicable to asymmetric epoxidation (see Chapter 1 for double asymmetric induction). In the case of asymmetric epoxidation involving double asymmetric induction, the enantiose-lectivity depends on whether the configurations of the substrate and the chiral ligand are matched or mismatched. For example, treating 7 with titanium tet-raisopropoxide and t-butyl hydroperoxide without (+)- or ( )-diethyl tartrate yields a mixture of epoxy alcohols 8 and 9 in a ratio of 2.3 1 (Scheme 4 3). In a... 

Although it was also Henbest who reported as early as 1965 the first asymmetric epoxidation by using a chiral peracid, without doubt, one of the methods of enantioselective synthesis most frequently used in the past few years has been the "asymmetric epoxidation" reported in 1980 by K.B. Sharpless [3] which meets almost all the requirements for being an "ideal" reaction. That is to say, complete stereofacial selectivities are achieved under catalytic conditions and working at the multigram scale. The method, which is summarised in Fig. 10.1, involves the titanium (IV)-catalysed epoxidation of allylic alcohols in the presence of tartaric esters as chiral ligands. The reagents for this asyimnetric epoxidation of primary allylic alcohols are L-(+)- or D-(-)-diethyl (DET) or diisopropyl (DIPT) tartrate,27 titanium tetraisopropoxide and water free solutions of fert-butyl hydroperoxide. The natural and unnatural diethyl tartrates, as well as titanium tetraisopropoxide are commercially available, and the required water-free solution of tert-bnty hydroperoxide is easily prepared from the commercially available isooctane solutions. 

One of the first attempts to extend polymer-assisted epoxidations to asymmetric variants were disclosed by Sherrington et al. The group employed chiral poly(tartrate ester) hgands in Sharpless epoxidations utilizing Ti(OiPr)4 and tBuOOH. However, yields and degree of stereoselection were only moderate [76]. In contrast to most concepts, Pu and coworkers applied chiral polymers, namely polymeric binaphthyl zinc to effect the asymmetric epoxidation of a,/9-unsaturated ketones in the presence of terPbutyl hydroperoxide (Scheme 4.11). 

Next to the base-catalyzed asymmetric epoxidations of electron-deficient olefins with chiral hydroperoxides described above, a few examples of uncatalyzed epoxidations with... 

SCHEME 64. Titanium-catalyzed asymmetric epoxidation of aUyhc alcohols with secondary chiral hydroperoxides in the presence of diol additives... 

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 . 

SCHEME 65. Vanadium-catalyzed asymmetric epoxidation of allylic alcohols with chiral hydroperoxides... 

TABLE 19. Comparison of published results for the asymmetric epoxidation of aUyhc alcohols employing chiral hydroperoxides, (yields are given ee and abs. configuration of the epoxides obtained are given in parentheses)... 

The use of a chiral hydroperoxide as oxidant in the asymmetric Baeyer-ViUiger reaction was also described by Aoki and Seebach, who tested the asymmetric indnction of their TADOOH hydroperoxide in this kind of reaction . Besides epoxidation and snlfoxidation, for which they found high enantioselectivities with TADOOH (60), this oxidant is also able to induce high asymmetry in Baeyer-ViUiger oxidations of racemic cyclobntanone derivatives in the presence of DBU as a base and LiCl as additive (Scheme 174). The yields and ee values (in parentheses) of ketones and lactones are given in Scheme 174 as... 

Chiral endoperoxides, synthesis, 260, 261 Chiral hydroperoxides aUyhc alcohol asymmetric epoxidation, 401-6, 407-9... 

Sharpless Asymmetric Epoxidation This is a method of converting allylic alcohols to chiral epoxy alcohols with very high enantioselectivity (i.e., with preference for one enantiomer rather than formation of racemic mixture). It involves treating the allylic alcohol with tert-butyl hydroperoxide, titanium(IV) tetra isopropoxide [Ti(0—/Pr)4] and a specific stereoisomer of tartaric ester. For example,... 

With a twist on the Sharpless asymmetric epoxidation protocol, Yamamoto and co-workers <99JOC338> have developed a chiral hydroxamic acid (17) derived from binaphthol, which serves as a coordinative chiral auxiliary when combined with VO(acac)j or VO(i-PrO)j in the epoxidation of allylic alcohols. In this protocol, triphenylmethyl hydroperoxide (TiOOH) provides markedly increased enantiomeric excess, compared to the more traditional t-butyl hydroperoxide. Thus, the epoxidation of E-2,3-diphenyl-2-propenol (18) with 7.5 mol% VO(i-PiO)3 and 15 mol% of 17 in toluene (-20 °C 24 h) provided the 2S,3S epoxide 19 in 83% ee. 

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%. 

The asymmetric epoxidation of allylic alcohols with cumene hydroperoxide or rerf-butyl hydroperoxide (TBHP) was first examined by using chiral amino alcohol-Mo complexes 45) and V complexes with chiral hydroxamic acid ligands (Scheme 20) 46). The highest optical yields were 33% with geraniol and 50% with 2-phenylcinnamyl alcohol. Combined use of VO(acac)2 and a hydroxamic acid derived from proline led to 80% optical yield with 2-phenylcinnamyl alcohol 47). 

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