Epoxidation amine catalysis

Scheme 1.47 Lattanzi s amine epoxidation of a,p-unsaturated ketones 1.2.2.5 Amine Catalysis...

Polymerization to Polyether Polyols. The addition polymerization of propylene oxide to form polyether polyols is very important commercially. Polyols are made by addition of epoxides to initiators, ie, compounds that contain an active hydrogen, such as alcohols or amines. The polymerization occurs with either anionic (base) or cationic (acidic) catalysis. The base catalysis is preferred commercially (25,27). 

Heteropoly acids can be synergistically combined with phase-transfer catalysis in the so-called Ishii-Venturello chemistry for oxidation reactions such as oxidation of alcohols, allyl alcohols, alkenes, alkynes, P-unsaturated acids, vic-diols, phenol, and amines with hydrogen peroxide (Mizuno et al., 1994). Recent examples include the epoxidations of alkyl undecylenates (Yadav and Satoskar, 1997) and. styrene (Yadav and Pujari, 2000). 

Epoxidation.1 This combination is known to oxidatively cleave double bonds but to effect epoxidation when catalyzed by a metalloporphyrin. Epoxidation of alkenes can also be effected by catalysis with a simple amine. The choice of the amine depends on the olefin. N,N-Dimethylethylenediamine is the most efficient ligand for epoxidation of a 1-alkene (68% yield). Pyridine is the best ligand for epoxidation of stilbene (93%), and imidazole is preferred for epoxidation of QH5CH=CHCH, (71% yield). 

About a decade after the discovery of the asymmetric epoxidation described in Chapter 14.2, another exciting discovery was reported from the laboratories of Sharpless, namely the asymmetric dihydroxylation of alkenes using osmium tetroxide. Osmium tetroxide in water by itself will slowly convert alkenes into 1,2-diols, but as discovered by Criegee [15] and pointed out by Sharpless, an amine ligand accelerates the reaction (Ligand-Accelerated Catalysis [16]), and if the amine is chiral an enantioselectivity may be brought about. 

Niobia-supported MTO has been prepared either by the deposition of sublimed MTO onto the support, or by the impregnation of the support by a solution of MTO, and has been well characterised [54]. A large variety of oxidation reactions were efficiently performed with niobia-supported MTO, such as olefin metathesis catalysis [53,54], reactions of ethyl diazoacetate, heteroatom oxidation (amine and phosphine oxidations) and olefin epoxidation with hydrogen peroxide [55] (Scheme 13). 

These reactions are catalysed by acids such as Lewis acids, phenols, and alcohols. The hydroxyl groups formed by the amine epoxide addition are active catalysts, so that the curing reaction usually shows an accelerating rate in its early stages, typical of auto catalysis. In some cases when the amine is present in less than stoichiometric concentrations, reaction of epoxide and hydroxyl may occur to produce an ether group ... 

Amines usually react with epoxides at the less substituted carbon atom (Scheme4.73) [329, 330], With sterically demanding reaction partners these reactions will often proceed slowly or, as with tetraalkyl epoxides, not at all [252, 331]. Higher reaction rates can be achieved by increasing the concentration of the reactants, by using lithium amides as nucleophiles [332], or by catalysis with Lewis acids [252, 333] or Bronsted acids [334]. Ammonia can also be alkylated by 2,3-dialkyl epoxides (80 °C, 15-60 h [335]). Hydroxymethyl epoxides (but not alkoxymethyl epoxides) can be activated toward nucleophilic attack by amines by use of stoichiometric amounts of Ti(OiPr)4 [336] (third example, Scheme4.73). 

Catalysis by acids, which is only rarely effective for aliphatic amines but better suited to the less basic aromatic amines [334], can promote nucleophilic attack at the most strongly polarized C-0 bond of the epoxide (Scheme 4.75) [333, 334, 339]. Vinyl epoxides react with amines in the presence of Pd(0) under mild conditions to yield allylamines [340], If such reactions are performed in the presence of an enantiomerically pure ligand, racemic vinyl epoxides can be converted into enantiomerically enriched products of nucleophilic ring opening (last example, Scheme 4.75). 

The same differential behavior can be observed with amine nucleophiles. For example, calcium triflate promotes the aminolysis of propene oxide 84 with benzylamine to give 1-(A -benzyl)amino-2-propanol 85, the result of attack at the less substituted site <03T2435>, and which is also seen in the solventless reaction of epoxides with heterocyclic amines under the catalysis of ytterbium(III) triflate <03SC2989>. Conversely, zinc chloride directs the attack of aniline on styrene oxide 34 at the more substituted carbon center <03TL6026>. A ruthenium catalyst in the presence of tin chloride also results in an SNl-type substitution behavior with aniline derivatives (e.g., 88), but further provides for subsequent cyclization of the intermediate amino alcohol, thus representing an interesting synthesis of 2-substituted indoles (e.g., 89) <03TL2975>. 

Analogous to epoxides, aziridines can be prepared by the methylenation of imines. In this case, ethyl diazoacetate is the most common source of carbenes. For example, the imine derived from p-chlorobenzaldehyde 148 is converted to the c/j-aziridinyl ester 149 upon treatment with ethyl diazoacetate in the presence of lithium perchlorate <03TL5275>. These conditions have also been applied to a reaction medium of the ionic liquid l-n-butyl-3-methylimidazolium hexafluorophosphate (bmimPFe) with excellent results <03TL2409>. An interesting enantioselective twist to this protocol has been reported, in which a diazoacetate derived from (TJ)-pantolactone 150 is used. This system was applied to the aziridination of trifluoromethyl-substituted aldimines, which were prepared in situ from the corresponding aminals under the catalysis of boron trifluoride etherate <03TL4011>. 

General acid catalysis in the hydrolysis of 81 is quite facile. This reaction, as discussed in Section Benzylic epoxides and arene oxides and shown in Scheme 39, involves proton transfer to the epoxide oxygen concerted with epoxide C-O bond breaking to form a carbocation 83. For primary ammonium ions with pKa < 8, only the acid form of the amine is reactive, and carbocation formation is irreversible,... 

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