Aziridine rings, opening, with

Reductive aziridine ring-opening with sodium cyanoborohydride has been described [74, 91]. In the presence of a catalytic amount of TsOH, compound 111 (Scheme 3.37) gave 112 in 68% yield on treatment with sodium cyanoborohydride [74, 91]. 

Nitrogen-based nucleophiles continue to remain popular in ring-opening reactions of aziridines. a-Substituted-a-methoxycarbonyl-V-nosylaziridines were opened with a variety of functionalized amines to provide access to enantiopure a,a -disubstituted (3-lactam scaffolds for ditopic peptidomimetics <07OL101>. A related intramolecular regioselective 3,Y-aziridine ring opening with an a-amino functionality was reported in the synthesis of... 

The intramolecular aziridination of alkoxycarbonyl azides derived from ( )-5-hydroxymethyl-2(5//)-furanone, via thermal decomposition to nitrenes, gave the tricyclic compound 34 which was successively converted to the bicyclic compound 35. The aziridine ring opening with hydrazoic acid/ sodium azide ion of the aziridines 34 and 35 gives azido lactones 36 with the xylo configuration mixtures of xylo- and (y.w-forms were obtained by partial epimerization in equilibrating conditions and were easily separated60. 

Tabie 5 Aziridine ring openings with oxygen nucieophiies... 

Table 6 Aziridine ring openings with suifur nucleophiles...

A synthesis of 3 starting from a conformationally flexible D-mannitol A-Boc bis-aziridine derivative 81 has been reported (Scheme 14). The cyclic carbamate-protected pyrrolidine 82 was obtained from 81 via the regioselective bis-aziridine ring opening with Li2NiBr4, followed by Ag+-promoted intramolecular substitution of the bromide by the N -Boc group in 75% overall yield. Nitrous acid deamination of 82 with isoamyl nitrite led, in 50% yield, to a 1 1 mixture of cyclic carbamate protected pyrrolidines 84 and 85 via the intermediate... 

Table 13.30 Catalytic enantioselective weso-aziridine ring-opening with TMSCN with Gd/ligand 7e complex...

Table 13.31 Catalytic enantioselective meso-aziridine ring-opening with TMSN3...

The facility with which oxiranes may be prepared and the ease with which they undergo ring opening with nucleophiles or electrophiles makes them useful synthons. Aziridines and especially thiiranes have been less widely exploited in this respect. 

With Oxygen Nucleophiles Aziridine ring-opening of 111 (Scheme 3.42) with water in the presence of a catalytic amount of TsOH gave the corresponding (3-hydrox-yphenylalanine derivative 121 in 72% yield as the major isomer [74], Treatment of N-(p-tolylsulfmyl) aziridine-2-carboxylates with TFA and subsequent aqueous workup resulted in the formation of j3-substituted serine derivatives [62, 63, 101]. Under these reaction conditions, not only was the aziridine ring opened, but also the N-sulfmyl group was removed treatment of 122 (Scheme 3.43) with TFA at 73 °C, for example, afforded 123 in 75% yield [101],... 

Treatment of N-acetyl aziridinecarboxylate with acetic anhydride and heating resulted in the aziridine ring-opened product [106], whereas treatment of the aziridine 137 (Scheme 3.49) with acetic anhydride in the presence of pyridine and DMAP as base similarly resulted in the formation of acetate 138 in 90% yield [45]. 

With Sulfur Nucleophiles N-Carboxy-protected aziridine-2-carboxylates react with thiols to give P-mercapto-ot-amino acid derivatives. The reaction is usually catalyzed by BF3 and the yields range from fair to excellent [15, 16, 108-111]. With N-unprotected 3-substituted aziridine-2-carboxylates, the ring-opening with thiols usually takes place with anti stereoselectivity, especially in the case of the C-3 aliphatic substituted substrates. In cases in which C-3 is aromatic, however, the stereoselectivity has been found to be a function of the substitution pattern on the aromatic ring 3-p-methoxy ph eri yl-su bs li In led aziridines 143a (Scheme 3.51) and... 

Aziridine lactone 235 (Scheme 3.87) underwent ring-opening with allyl alcohol to give a 53% yield of a-amino lactone 236, which was successfully transformed to the unnatural enantiomer of polyoxamic acid (—)-237 [32],... 

S,3R)-Aziridine-2-carboxylic amide 258 (Scheme 3.95) has been used in the synthesis of the cyclic guanidino amino acid, L-epicapreomycidine (260) [145]. Treatment of 258 with saturated ammonia in methanol at 30 °C for 4 days in a pressure bottle resulted in the aziridine ring-opening product, which afforded 259 in 52 % yield after removal of the Cbz protecting group. 

The ring-opening reactions of aziridines 16 with amines deserve special attention. Unlike ring-openings with the other nucleophiles examined, they do not require added base, and they do not produce stoichiometric byproducts (as with azide). In certain cases, they do not even require a solvent, as exemplified by the ring-opening of aziridine 18 (Table 12.12, entries 1-3). In addition, the reactions... 

The majority of reactions of aziridines deal with acid-catalyzed ring opening with various nucleophiles. In this review only reactions with aziridine-2-car-boxylic esters are summarized (for other types of aziridines, see ref. [3]). 

Various epoxides and aziridines undergo smooth ring opening with water in presence of bismuth triflate (10 mol%) to provide the corresponding v/c-diols and p-amino alcohols with excellent regioselectivity [35]. Reaction of styrene oxide with water in the presence of Bi(OTf)3 affords styrene 1,2-diols (Fig. 7). Similarly,... 

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