1.3- BUTADIENE-1,4-DIOL, TRANS

The asymmetric dihydroxylation of dienes has been examined, originally with the use of NMO as the cooxidant for osmium [56a] and, more recently, with potassium ferricyanide as the cooxidant [56b], Tetraols are the main product of the reaction when NMO is used, but with K3Fe(CN)6, ene-diols are produced with excellent regioselectivity. The example of dihydroxylation of trans.trans-1,4-diphenyl-1,3-butadiene is included in Table 6D.3 (entry 21). One double bond of this diene is hydroxylated in 84% yield with 99% ee when the amounts of K3Fe(CN)6 and K2C03 are limited to 1.5 equiv. each. Unsymmetrical dienes are also dihydroxy-lated with excellent regioselectivity. In these dienes, preference is shown for (a) a bans over a cis olefin, (b) the terminal olefin in a,p,y,8-unsaturated esters, and (c) the more highly substituted olefin [56b],... 

The resulting polybutadiene is a polymer with 1,4 cis, 1,4 trans and 1,2 microstructures. The resulting polybutadiene diol is perfectly linear having a high proportion of 1,2 microstructure (Figure 9.3). The functionality is very close to the theoretical functionality f = 2 OH groups/mol (92-93% bifunctional poly butadiene) [16-24]. 

The diol 4 had never been described in the literature before we used it in the synthesis of 1. Initially, we tried to synthesize it using an enantioselective Diels-Alder reaction between a chiral fumarate equivalent 5 (Scheme 10.1) and butadiene 6, followed by double-bond dihydroxylation [41]. However, a more effective protocol for large-scale synthesis could finally be based on the procedure shown in Scheme 10.2, leading to enantiomericaUy pure (lS,2S)-cyclohex-4-ene-1,2-dicarboxylic acid 7 [42]. Here, a Bolm desymmetrization of tetrahydrophthahc anhydride 8 using quinine leads to monoester 9 in 89% ee. The monoester 9, in turn, can be epimerized to the trans isomer 10 which is hydrolyzed to obtain 7, after crystallization. This intermediate is the starting material for the synthesis of 4 and of other conformationally constrained DCCHD to be used as monosaccharide mimics [43, 44]. Our current best protocol for the large-scale synthesis of 7 is reported at the end of this chapter. 

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