Cryptands containing a carbon bridgehead

We have noted above (Sect. 8.3) that certain substituted benzoic acids have been used in the synthesis of endolipophilic cryptands but it is the glycerol and penta-erythritol units which have been used most commonly in this application. These are discussed separately, below. 

There are essentially three methods which have been used for incorporation of the glycerol unit in macrobicyclic species. In all of these the pervasive problem is the tendency of glycerol to form five-membered acetals involving the primary and secondary hydroxyls rather than the two primary hydroxyls and the tendency of the glycerol equivalent 1,3-dichloro-2-propanol to form epichlorohydrin. 

Haines and Karntiang later adopted a somewhat more symmetrical approach in the synthesis of glycerol-based cryptands when they utilized the six-membered benzylidene derivative of glyceroP. Details of the synthesis described in Eq. (8.8), above, are also presented in this paper. The symmetrical approach is quite similar to that described in Eq. (8.8), and is outlined below in Eq. (8.9). 

Coxon and Stoddart have directed their attention to the formation of penta-erythritol-derived cryptands. With these molecules, the strategy was to block one pair of hydroxyl groups as an acetal and form a crown from the remaining diol. In the first of the two reports cited above, this was accomplished by treating the 0-benzylidine derivative of pentaerythritol with base and diethylene glycol ditosylate. The crown was then treated with a mixture of UAIH4 and BF3 which gives partial reduction of the acetal as shown in (8.9), above. The monoprotected diol could now be treated in a fashion similar to that previously described and the benzyloxy cryptand (77) would result. The scheme is illustrated below as Eq. (8.10). 

Similar pentaerythritol cryptands have been prepared by a slight modification of the above approach. Although the general strategy is as illustrated in Eq. (8.11), atfetal formation is accomplished by reaction of pentaerythritol with paraformaldehyde. This reaction leads to diacetal 12 which is hydrolyzed in dilute H2SO4 to yield the monoacetal, 13. The latter is then used in a fashion similar to that described in Eq. 8.10, above. 

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