Dioxiranes catalysts

Dioxiranes for alkene epoxidation may be prepared in situ from a catalytic amount of a ketone and Oxone (potassium peroxymonosulfate triple salt). )V,)V-Dimethyl-and A, A -dibenzylalloxans (20a) and (20b) (Figure 3) have been prepared and used as novel dioxirane catalysts for the epoxidation of a range of di- and tri-substituted alkenes in good to excellent yield. H2O2 (rather than the usual Oxone) has been successfully used as primary oxidant in asymmetric epoxidations with Shi s fructose-derived ketone (21) in acetonitrile. The ketone is converted into the dioxirane, which is responsible for epoxidation and the active oxidant responsible for dioxirane formation is proposed to be peroxyimidic acid formed by combination of H2O2 with acetonitrile. ... 

Asymmetric epoxidation of terminal olefins has remained problematic, despite the general success of the novel dioxirane-based catalysts. The enantiomeric excesses in these reactions do not usually exceed 85% (see Section 9.1.1.1). As recrystallization of epoxides can be complicated, enantiopure terminal epoxides are difficult to obtain. 

This was also accomplished with BaRu(0)2(OH)3. The same type of conversion, with lower yields (20-30%), has been achieved with the Gif system There are several variations. One consists of pyridine-acetic acid, with H2O2 as oxidizing agent and tris(picolinato)iron(III) as catalyst. Other Gif systems use O2 as oxidizing agent and zinc as a reductant. The selectivity of the Gif systems toward alkyl carbons is CH2 > CH > CH3, which is unusual, and shows that a simple free-radical mechanism (see p. 899) is not involved. ° Another reagent that can oxidize the CH2 of an alkane is methyl(trifluoromethyl)dioxirane, but this produces CH—OH more often than C=0 (see 14-4). ... 

A number of chiral ketones have been developed that are capable of enantiose-lective epoxidation via dioxirane intermediates.104 Scheme 12.13 shows the structures of some chiral ketones that have been used as catalysts for enantioselective epoxidation. The BINAP-derived ketone shown in Entry 1, as well as its halogenated derivatives, have shown good enantioselectivity toward di- and trisubstituted alkenes. 

Vinyl epoxides are highly useful synthetic intermediates. The epoxidation of dienes using Mn-salen type catalysts typically occurs at the civ-olefin. Epoxidations of dienes with sugar-derived dioxiranes have previously been reported to react at the trans-olefin of a diene. A new oxazolidinone-sugar dioxirane, 9, has been shown to epoxidize the civ-olefin of a diene <06AG(I)4475>. A variety of substitution on the diene is tolerated in the epoxidation, including aryl, alkyl and even an additional olefin. All of these substitutions provided moderate yields of the mono-epoxide with good enantioselectivity. 

Among many other methods for epoxidation of disubstituted E-alkenes, chiral dioxiranes generated in situ from potassium peroxomonosulfate and chiral ketones have appeared to be one of the most efficient. Recently, Wang et /. 2J reported a highly enantioselective epoxidation for disubstituted E-alkenes and trisubstituted alkenes using a d- or L-fructose derived ketone as catalyst and oxone as oxidant (Figure 6.3). 

Wang and Shi have published a detailed study of their fructose-based dioxirane epoxidation catalyst system with hydroxyalkene substrates. The ees obtained were highly pH dependent. The lower enantioselectivity obtained at low pH is attributed to the substantial contribution of direct epoxidation by Oxone. The results obtained with... 

By exploiting electrostatic field effects (unfavourable through-space charge-dipole repulsion) to increase the nucleophilic susceptibility of cyclohexanones, more efficient catalysts (16) and (17) for epoxidafion through in situ dioxirane formation have been designed. ... 

A high catalyst loading (typically 20-30 mol%) is usually required for the epoxidation with ketone 26 because Baeyer-Vilhger oxidation presumably decomposes the catalyst during the epoxidation. The fused ketal moiety in ketone 26 was replaced by a more electron-withdrawing oxazohdinone (32) and acetates (33) with the anticipation that these replacements would decrease the amount of decomposition via Baeyer-Villiger oxidation (Fig. 8) [71, 72]. Only 5 mol% (1 mol% in some cases) of ketone 32 was needed to get comparable reactivity and enantioselectivity with 20-30 mol% of ketone 26 [71]. Since dioxiranes are electrophilic reagents, they show low reactivity toward electron-deficient olefins, such as a, 3-unsaturated esters. Ketone 33, readily available from ketone 26, was found to be an effective catalyst towards the epoxidation of a, 3-unsaturated esters [72]. 

Hexafluoroacetone and hydrogen peroxide in buffered aqueous solution epoxidize alkenes and allyhc alcohols.81 82 A/yV-Dialkylpiperidin-4-one salts are also good catalysts for epoxidation.83 84 The quaternary nitrogen enhances the reactivity of the ketone toward nucleophilic addition and also makes the dioxirane intermediate more reactive. 

Should the substrate to be oxidized and its oxidation product be hydrolytically resistant and thermally persistent, the oxidation with in-situ-generated dioxirane is recommended. The advantages include that more ketone catalyst is available, the generation of the... 

The breakthrough came already in 1996, one year after Curd s prediction, when Yang and coworkers reported the C2-symmetric binaphthalene-derived ketone catalyst 6, with which ee values of up to 87% were achieved. A few months later, Shi and coworkers reported the fructose-derived ketone 7, which is to date still one of the best and most widely employed chiral ketone catalysts for the asymmetric epoxidation of nonactivated alkenes. Routinely, epoxide products with ee values of over 90% may be obtained for trans- and trisubstituted alkenes. Later on, a catalytic version of this oxygen-transfer reaction was developed by increasing the pH value of the buffer. The shortcoming of such fructose-based dioxirane precursors is that they are prone to undergo oxidative decomposition, which curtails their catalytic activity. 

Although the parent formaldehyde-derived dioxirane (H2CO2) was the first of this intriguing class of cyclic peroxides to be prepared and spectrally characterized in 1976, the conversion of aldehydes into the corresponding dioxiranes by treatment with Caroate was deemed difficult because of the expectedly facile Baeyer-Villiger oxidation of the aldehydes to their carboxylic acids. Most gratifyingly, however, is that it was recently demonstrated that optically active aldehydes may also serve as promising catalysts for asymmetric epoxidations. For example, ee values up to 94% were obtained with the aldehyde 14 as dioxirane precursor. 

A sometimes nagging aspect of dioxirane-based oxidations is the degradation of catalyst. In this regard, Camell and co-workers <99TL8029> have reported on the use of A//-dialkyl-alloxan 163 as a particularly robust dioxirane precursor, which can be recovered in high yield with no evidence of catalyst decomposition. Attempts thus far to parlay this catalyst into an asymmetric induction paradigm (e.g., via 164) have been unsuccessful. 

Chiral dioxiranes, generated in situ from chiral ketones and Oxone , are promising reagents for the asymmetric epoxidation of unfunctionalized alkenes. Chiral ketone catalysts that are easily accessible in both enantiomers are targets for development. 

Polymer-bound trifluoromethyl aryl ketone 42 was prepared by attaching 4-(trifluoroacetyl)benzoic acid to a suitably functionalized resin and used as a catalyst in Oxone-mediated epoxidations.64 The reactions proceed by in situ generation of the polymer-supported (trifluoromethyl)-dioxirane. A series of epoxides was formed in good to excellent yield. 

Epoxidation. Oxone decomposes in the presence of a ketone (such as acetone) to form a species, possibly a dioxirane (a), which can epoxidize alkenes in high yield in reactions generally conducted in CH2C12-H20 with a phase-transfer catalyst. An added ketone is not necessary for efficient epoxidation of an unsaturated ketone. The method is particularly useful for preparation of epoxides that are unstable to heat or acids and bases.3 The acetone-Oxone system is comparable to m-chloroperbenzoic acid in the stereoselectivity of epoxidation of allylic alcohols. It is also similar to the peracid in preferential attack of the double bond in geraniol (dienol) that is further removed from the hydroxyl group.4... 

It should finally be pointed out that the mild reaction conditions typically employed in dioxirane-mediated oxidations enable the asymmetric epoxidation of enol ethers and enol esters. With the silyl ethers, work-up provides enantiomeri-cally enriched a-hydroxy ketones. As summarized in Table 10.1, quite significant enantiomeric excesses were achieved by use of catalyst 10 at loadings ranging from 30 [30] to 300 mol% [31]. Enol esters afford the intact acyloxyepoxides enantiomeric purities are, again, quite remarkable. 

As discussed in Section 10.1, asymmetric epoxidation of C=C double bonds usually requires electrophilic oxygen donors such as dioxiranes or oxaziridinium ions. The oxidants typically used for enone epoxidation are, on the other hand, nucleophilic in nature. A prominent example is the well-known Weitz-Scheffer epoxidation using alkaline hydrogen peroxide or hydroperoxides in the presence of base. Asymmetric epoxidation of enones and enoates has been achieved both with metal-containing catalysts and with metal-free systems [52-55]. In the (metal-based) approaches of Enders [56, 57], Jackson [58, 59], and Shibasaki [60, 61] enantiomeric excesses > 90% have been achieved for a variety of substrate classes. In this field, however, the same is also true for metal-free catalysts. Chiral dioxiranes will be discussed in Section 10.2.1, peptide catalysts in Section 10.2.2, and phase-transfer catalysts in Section 10.2.3. 

In the metal-free epoxidation of enones and enoates, practically useful yields and enantioselectivity have been achieved by using catalysts based on chiral electrophilic ketones, peptides, and chiral phase-transfer agents. (E)-configured acyclic enones are comparatively easy substrates that can be converted to enantiomeri-cally highly enriched epoxides by all three methods. Currently, chiral ketones/ dioxiranes constitute the only catalyst system that enables asymmetric and metal-free epoxidation of (E)-enoates. There seems to be no metal-free method for efficient asymmetric epoxidation of achiral (Z)-enones. Exocyclic (E)-enones have been epoxidized with excellent ee using either phase-transfer catalysis or polyamino acids. In contrast, generation of enantiopure epoxides from normal endocyclic... 

In principle, oxidative kinetic resolution of racemic alcohols can be achieved by using chiral oxidation catalysts such as TEMPO derivatives or dioxiranes. The selectivity achieved by use of these methods is, however, less than that observed in acylation reactions (Section 12.1). 

Denmark has developed a practical dioxirane-mediated protocol for the catalytic epoxidation of alkenes, which uses Oxone as a terminal oxidant. The olefins studied were epoxidized in 83-96% yield. Of the many reaction parameters examined in this biphasic system, the most influential were found to be the reaction pH, the lipophilicity of the phase-transfer catalyst, and the counterion present. In general, optimal conditions feature 10 mol% of the catalyst l-dodecyl-l-methyl-4-oxopiperidinium triflate (30) and a pH 7.5-8.0 aqueous-methylene chloride biphasic solvent system [95JOC1391]. 

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