Diastereoselectivity oxirane ring opening

Alcohols can be obtained from many other classes of compounds such as alkyl halides, amines, al-kenes, epoxides and carbonyl compounds. The addition of nucleophiles to carbonyl compounds is a versatile and convenient methc for the the preparation of alcohols. Regioselective oxirane ring opening of epoxides by nucleophiles is another important route for the synthesis of alcohols. However, stereospe-cific oxirane ring formation is prerequisite to the use of epoxides in organic synthesis. The chemistry of epoxides has been extensively studied in this decade and the development of the diastereoselective oxidations of alkenic alcohols makes epoxy alcohols with definite configurations readily available. Recently developed asymmetric epoxidation of prochiral allylic alcohols allows the enantioselective synthesis of 2,3-epoxy alcohols. 

Epoxidation of the 1,2-double bond is followed by highly diastereoselective attack at the 5,6-double bond both oxirane rings in 372 can be opened separately under controlled conditions, forming the tetrasubstituted tetrahydrofurans 373 and 374 with very good overall yields . ... 

The reaction of ketones with excess of the sulfoximine salt Na-2b gives oxetanes formed by ring opening of the initially formed oxirane and subsequent ring closure. These reactions are highly diastereoselective and generally the thermodynamically more stable oxetane, in which the C-O bond is axial, is formed from cyclic ketones since the intermediate oxirane is formed under thermodynamically controlled conditions.61... 

Irradiation of 2,5-dimethylbenzoyl oxiranes results in formation of p-hydroxy functionalized indanones (74) that structurally resemble biologically active pterosines. Nanosecond laser flash photolysis and quantum-chemical calculations based on density functional theory support a photoenolization mechanism.Reversible photochemical transformations of cis- and tra v-2,3-dimethyloxirane radical cations in freonic matrices at 77 K has been observed and explained by the interconversion between the open (C2-C3 broken) and the cyclic forms. Photocatalytic ring opening of a-epoxy ketones in cyclopentanone, using 2,4,6-triphenylpyrylium tetra-fluoroborate as electron acceptor, results in the diastereoselective formation of 2,5-dioxaspiro[4,4]nonanes through Ca-O bond cleavage and subsequent nucleophilic attack by cyclopentanone to the radical cation intermediates. ... 

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