Dimethyl tartrate asymmetric epoxidation

Optically active tartrate esters are the source of chirality for the asymmetric epoxidation process. With a few subtle exceptions, the esters used conventionally—dimethyl (DMT), diethyl (DET), and diisopropyl tartrate (DIPT)—are equally effective at inducing asymmetry during the crucial epoxidation event. The minor exceptions that have been noted include (a) a slight improvement... 

The known allylic alcohol 9 derived from protected dimethyl tartrate is exposed to Sharpless asymmetric epoxidation conditions with (-)-diethyl D-tartrate. The reaction yields exclusively the anti epoxide 10 in 77 % yield. In contrast to the above mentioned epoxidation of the ribose derived allylic alcohol, in this case epoxidation of 9 with MCPBA at 0 °C resulted in a 65 35 mixture of syn/anti diastereomers. The Sharpless epoxidation of primary and secondary allylic alcohols discovered in 1980 is a powerful reagent-controlled reaction.12 The use of titanium(IV) tetraisopropoxide as catalyst, tert-butylhydro-peroxide as oxidant, and an enantiopure dialkyl tartrate as chiral auxiliary accomplishes the epoxidation of allylic alcohols with excellent stereoselectivity. If the reaction is kept absolutely dry, catalytic amounts of the dialkyl tartrate(titanium)(IV) complex are sufficient. 

Let us turn now to the other coupling partner, aldehyde 58 it was synthesised by the pathway shown in Scheme 17.18. The first step was a Sharpless catalytic asymmetric epoxidation on ( )-crotyl alcohol with the oxidant derived from (—)-diethyl tartrate. An in situ derivatisation with r-butyldiphenylsilylchloride was then performed. The desired epoxide 59 was readily isolated in 76% overall yield after chromatography. Treatment of 59 with 2-lithio-l,3-dithiane in THF and 1,3-dimethyl-3,4,5,6-tetrahydro-2(l/7)-pyrimidinone (DMPU also known as N,N-... 

Chiral Ligand for Asymmetric Catalysis. Dimethyl l-tartrate is a demonstrated chiral ligand for the Ti -catalyzed asymmetric epoxidation of allylic alcohols (Sharpless epoxidation), and the Zn -mediated asymmetric cyclo-propanation of allylic alcohols (Simmons-Smith reaction), see lodomethylzinc Iodide Enantioselectivities in these reactions... 

One of the most potent frameworks for the synthesis of two contiguous stereochemically defined asymmetric centers is the chiral epoxy functionality. Prepared in molar-scale quantity from dimethyl L-tartrate (la), bromohydrin 860 is a shelf-storable solid that undergoes selective reduction at the a-hydroxy ester function with borane-dimethylsulfide complex in the presence of catalytic sodium borohydride to provide a 4 1 mixture of methyl (2S,3S)-2-bromo-3,4-dihydroxybutanoate (861) and methyl (2i, 3i )-3-bromo-2,4-dihydroxybutanoate (862). Without purification this mixture is treated with ert-butyldimethylsilylchloride and then exposed to sodium methoxide, which results in conversion to the single epoxide methyl (2i, 3iS)-4-( err-butyldimethylsilyloxy)-2,3-epoxybutanoate (863) in 95% yield and with 99% optical purity (Scheme 188). 

Dimethyl (2/ ,3 )-tartrate provides the central C4 building block. Homer olefination is used to attach the C2 building block at one end. Asymmetric Sharpless epoxidation converts the resulting olefin to the Cg epoxide. The Cn chain, produced from the Cg and C3 building blocks, is attached at the other end. The missing Ci atom is provided by CH2N2 an Arndt-Eistert reaction leads, via the Cxg diazo ketone, to the Cjg hydroxycarboxylic acid. Cycliza-tion of the seco-isomer gives enf-100 Scheme 52). 

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