Crowns Incorporating Sugar Subunits

As in the previous categories in this section, there are numerous compounds which have been prepared based on a sugar subunit. Examples may be found in Refs. 7,35,42-45, 57, 82-85, 117—121,175,176,193 and 208. Much of the work in these references has been reported by Stoddart and his coworkers, who have pioneered this field. As with the compounds prepared by Cram, the goal was to prepare a chiral receptor for ammonium ions which could be utilized in enzyme model studies. 

An interesting feature of the synthesis is the use of allyl as a two-carbon extension unit. This has been used in the stereospecific synthesis of dicyclohexano-18-crown-6 (see Eq. 3.13) and by Cram for formation of an aldehyde unit (see Eq. 3.55). In the present case, mannitol bis-acetonide was converted into its allyl ether which was ozonized (reductive workup) to afford the bis-ethyleneoxy derivative. The latter two groups were tosylated and the derivative was allowed to react with its precursor to afford the chiral crown. The entire process is shown below in Eq. (3.59). 

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A large number of chiral crowns have been prepared by numerous groups. The reader is directed to the tables at the end of this chapter to obtain an overview of these structures. It would not be useful to try to recount the synthetic approaches used in the preparation of all of these compounds we have chosen rather to subdivide this mass of compounds into three principal groups. The groups are (1) Cram s chiral binaphthyl systems (2) chiral crowns based on the tartaric acid unit and (3) crowns incorporating sugar subunits. These are discussed in turn, below. 

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