Epoxidation electrophilic, with peracids

The chemistry of l-methyl-truns-cyclo-octene has been studied. In particular it reacts with acidic methanol to give 1-methoxy-l-methylcyclo-octane, with bromine to give a complex mixture, and with peracid to give its epoxide. On warming in acetic acid it is isomerized to 1-methyl-cis-cyclo-octene, and it reacts with diazomethane and phenyl azide to give cycloaddition products. With 4-phenyl-1,2,4-triazine-3,5-dione, the ene product (121) is obtained. The major difference in reactivity between trans-cyclo-octene and its 1-methyl analogue was found for electrophilic addition reactions where the stability of the incipient 3° cation made the 1-methyl compound more reactive.Transannular products were obtained from the reaction between trans-... 

The Sharpless epoxidation provides good examples of both directed and asymmetric catalytic reactions. It has long been known that alkenes can be epoxidized with peracids, which deliver an electrophilic oxygen atom, as shown... 

The most common method of epoxidation is the reaction of olefins with per-acids. For over twenty years, perbenzoic acid and monoperphthalic acid have been the most frequently used reagents. Recently, m-chloroperbenzoic acid has proved to be an equally efficient reagent which is commercially available (Aldrich Chemicals). The general electrophilic addition mechanism of the peracid-olefin reaction is currently believed to involve either an intra-molecularly bonded spiro species (1) or a 1,3-dipolar adduct of a carbonyl oxide, cf. (2). The electrophilic addition reaction is sensitive to steric effects. 

Double bonds in a,/3-unsaturated keto steroids can be selectively oxidized with alkaline hydrogen peroxide to yield epoxy ketones. In contrast to the electrophilic addition mechanism of peracids, the mechanism of alkaline epoxidation involves nucleophilic attack of hydroperoxide ion on the con-... 

The hydroxy oxygen of a peracid has a higher electrophilicity as compared to a carboxylic acid. A peracid 2 can react with an alkene 1 by transfer of that particular oxygen atom to yield an oxirane (an epoxide) 3 and a carboxylic acid 4. The reaction is likely to proceed via a transition state as shown in 5 (butterfly mechanism), where the electrophilic oxygen adds to the carbon-carbon n-hond and the proton simultaneously migrates to the carbonyl oxygen of the acid ... 

An important finding is that all peroxo compounds with d° configuration of the TM center exhibit essentially the same epoxidation mechanism [51, 61, 67-72] which is also valid for organic peroxo compounds such as dioxiranes and peracids [73-79], The calculations revealed that direct nucleophilic attack of the olefin at an electrophilic peroxo oxygen center (via a TS of spiro structure) is preferred because of significantly lower activation barriers compared to the multi-step insertion mechanism [51, 61-67]. A recent computational study of epoxidation by Mo peroxo complexes showed that the metallacycle intermediate of the insertion mechanism leads to an aldehyde instead of an epoxide product [62],... 

Simple alkenes, including cyclohexene, react rapidly with electrophiles such as bromine or peroxy-acids (Chapter 20). Bromine gives a product of tram addition, peracids give epoxides by cis addition. Under the same conditions benzene does not react with either reagent. 

We dealt in detail earlier in the chapter with reducing agents and their characteristic chemoselectivi-ties. Oxidizing agents are equally important, and in the chapter on electrophilic addition to alkenes we told you about peracids as oxidizing agents for C=C double bonds—they give epoxides. But... 

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