Epoxidation lanthanide-catalyzed

In contrast to the epoxides, preparative routes to the aziridines are fairly evenly split between the [C=N + C] and the [C=C + N] routes. Among contributions in the former category, aziridine carboxylate derivatives 110 can be prepared through the lanthanide-catalyzed reaction of imines with diazo compounds, such as ethyl diazoacetate (EDA). In this protocol, iV-benzyl aryl aldimines and imines derived from aromatic amines and hindered aliphatic aldehydes are appropriate substrates <99T12929>. An intramolecular variant of this reaction (e.g.. Ill —> 112) has also been reported <990L667>. 

Schaus, S. E. Jacobsen, E. N. (2000) Asymmetric ring opening of meso- epoxides with TMSCN catalyzed by (pybox)lanthanide complexes., Org. Lett, 2 1001-1004. 

Carree, F. Gil, R. Collin, J. (2005) Enantioselective ring opening of meso-epoxides by aromatic amines catalyzed by lanthanide iodo binaphtholates., Org. Lett., 7 1023-1026. 

Shibasaki and coworkers have developed lanthanide-binol complexes LnM3(binaph-thoxide) [M = alkali metal], which have been shown to catalyze the epoxidation of... 

The high sensitivity of lanthanide reagents to steric factors is also observed in the cyanosilylation reaction of ketones catalyzed by ytterbium cyanide, Yb(CN)3 (Eq. 7) [10], Other reactions, for example epoxide and the aziridine opening by tri-methylsilyl cyanide, TMSCN, are also efficiently catalyzed by Yb(CN)3 [11]. This Yb reagent is not regarded as a Lewis acid but as the active species in these reactions. 

Lanthanide Lewis acids catalyze many of the reactions catalyzed by other Lewis acids, for example, the Mukaiyama-aldol reaction [14], Diels-Alder reactions [15], epoxide opening by TMSCN and thiols [14,10], and the cyanosilylation of aldehydes and ketones [17]. For most of these reactions, however, lanthanide Lewis acids have no advantages over other Lewis acids. The enantioselective hetero Diels-Alder reactions reported by Danishefsky et al. exploited one of the characteristic properties of lanthanides—mild Lewis acidity. This mildness enables the use of substrates unstable to common Lewis acids, for example Danishefsky s diene. It was recently reported by Shull and Koreeda that Eu(fod)3 catalyzed the allylic 1,3-transposition of methoxyace-tates (Table 7) [18]. This rearrangement did not proceed with acetates or benzoates, and seemed selective to a-alkoxyacetates. This suggested that the methoxy group could act as an additional coordination site for the Eu catalyst, and that this stabilized the complex of the Eu catalyst and the ester. The reaction proceeded even when the substrate contained an alkynyl group (entry 7), or when proximal alkenyl carbons of the allylic acetate were fully substituted (entries 10, 11 and 13). In these cases, the Pd(II) catalyzed allylic 1,3-transposition of allylic acetates was not efficient. 

Lanthanide isopropoxides were introduced as the first-generation alkoxide-type precatalysts (Structures 1-3) [133]. They proved to be more effective in the catalytic ring-opening of epoxides and aziridines than Et3N [134]. The acetone cyanohydrin reaction provided 5-hydroxynitriles and /3-aminonitriles. Strong basicity of the lanthanide isopropoxides is considered to catalyze the transhydrocya-nation effectively from acetone cyanohydrin to several aldehydes and ketones [135]. YbBu3 exhibited similar catalytic activity in this reaction. 

Similar conditions have been applied to the ring-opening of meso epoxides using amines. Bismuth triflate catalyzes the reaction of cyclohexene oxide 64 with p-bromoaniline under aqueous conditions to provide the P-aminoalcohol 65 in 84% yield. In this particular case, the water solubility of the starting materials required the use of a micellar solution of sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS) however, more soluble amines eould be employed in water and bismuth triflate alone <04TL49>. A lanthanide variant has also been reported. Thus, treatment of 64... 

---