Carbonyl ylides epoxide generation

The carbonyl ylide 1 can undergo an internal cyclization reaction to generate the corresponding epoxide 2, which is in fact an equilibrium process, and epoxides themselves have frequently served as precursors to carbonyl ylides. Other pathways such as concerted rearrangements and internal proton transfers have also been observed to neutralize the charged ylide intermediate and give substituted ethers as represented by 3. Perhaps the best known studies and most synthetically useful... 

Whereas, cii-divinyl epoxides are reactive and well known to undergo thermal Cope rearrangement, the trans isomers are significantly more stable. White and co-worker (24) showed that thermolysis of divinyl epoxides such as 88 could generate the corresponding carbonyl ylide and that it could be intercepted by the addition of an activated acetylene to give the corresponding dihydrofuran 89, albeit in modest yield. 

The fact that both the cis and trans isomers of diaryl epoxides give cis-ozonide made mandatory the possibility that back electron transfer within the radical ion pair generated a carbonyl ylide in which geometric equilibration can occur before oxygenation (130), although no direct evidence for this process could be obtained spectroscopically (133). 

Initial studies of solvent effects, on the reactions of triarylarsonium benzoylylides with p-nitrobenzaldehyde in N, A-dimethylformamide, dimethyl sulphoxide or methanol, indicated little solvent effect in these cases" ", but later studies of the more finely balanced reactions of semi-stabilized ylides have provided examples of strong influences due to the effect of different base and solvent when the ylide is generated in the presence of a carbonyl compound ". Thus, when benzyltriphenylarsonium bromide or p-chloroben-zyltriphenylarsonium bromide were treated with sodium hydride in benzene in the presence of a variety of p-substituted benzaldehydes the products were alkenes, but if sodium ethoxide in ethanol was used the isolated products were epoxides ". Likewise, when triphenylarsonium benzylylide was generated by phenyllithium in the presence of either benzaldehyde or acetaldehyde, the preponderant product was the epoxide whereas use of sodium amide as base provided mostly the alkene . Similar results were obtained when an allyltriphenylarsonium salt was deprotonated using different hexamethyldisilaz-... 

The l,3-thiazole-5-thione (36) undergoes a regioselective 1,3-dipolar cycloaddition reaction with a carbonyl ylide. The ylide is thermally generated by the electrocyclic ring opening of the epoxide (37) to give the spirocyclic adducts (38a and 38b) <97HCA1190>. 

S.2.2.6. Tetrahydrofurans from Carbonyl Ylides. Carbonyl ylides are unusual species that must be generated as needed. One method is to break the C-C bond of certain epoxides thermally or photochemically, which yields an open chain. Thereby one carbon is positively charged and the other is negatively charged, which is the structural feature of carbonyl ylides. This is shown in Scheme 5.33 A. Cycloaddition with an alkene follows immediately to give tetrahydrofuran derivatives (Scheme 5.33). 

With HMPA, Wittig reactions that give ( )-alkenes were also observed (eq 18), as was the directed selectivity of a semista-bilized arsonium ylide towards carbonyl compounds. The arsenic ylide was generated from LDA in THF or THF/HMPA solution to give exclusively epoxide (eq 19) or diene (eq 20), respectively. ... 

In transforming bis-ketone 45 to keto-epoxide 46, the elevated stereoselectivity was believed to be a consequence of tbe molecular shape — tbe sulfur ylide attacked preferentially from tbe convex face of the strongly puckered molecule of 45. Moreover, the pronounced chemoselectivity was attributed to tbe increased electropbilicity of the furanone versus the pyranone carbonyl, as a result of an inductive effect generated by tbe pair of spiroacetal oxygen substituents at tbe furanone a-position. ... 

---