Epoxidation of a, p-Unsaturated Carbonyl Compounds

The use of chiral crown ethers as asymmetric phase-transfer catalysts is largely due to the studies of Bako and Toke [6], as discussed below. Interestingly, chiral crown ethers have not been widely used for the synthesis of amino acid derivatives, but have been shown to be effective catalysts for asymmetric Michael additions of nitro-alkane enolates, for Darzens condensations, and for asymmetric epoxidations of a,P-unsaturated carbonyl compounds. 

The epoxidation of gem-deactivated olefins is a vexing problem in organic chemistry. While the epoxidation of a,P-unsaturated carbonyl compounds is well studied, the inclusion of an additional electron stabilizing group makes epoxidation much more difficult. The use of OT-CPBA/K2CO3 provides an excellent solution to this problem in the epoxidation of the sulfone ester 29 <05JOC4300>. 

Some of the most pertinent virtues of asymmetric epoxidations and dihydroxylations were already present in their classical versions. Both reactions are highly chemo-selective and can be carried out in the presence of many other functional groups. More important with respect to stereochemistry, each reaction is stereospecific in that the product faithfully reflects the E or Z configuration of the starting olefin (the nucleophilic epoxidation of a,P-unsaturated carbonyl compounds is an important exception). And one should not underestimate the importance of experimental simplicity in most cases, one can carry out these reactions by simply adding the often commercially available reagents to a substrate in solvent, without extravagant precautions to avoid moisture or air. 

Epoxidation of a,P-unsaturated carbonyl compounds in aqueous media can be achieved traditionally by Michael reaction with alkaline hydroperoxides. 

It has been reported that the epoxidation of a,p-unsaturated carbonyl compound can be conveniently accomplished by using sodium perborate (SPB) in aqueous media at pH 8 to give a,P-epoxyketones (Scheme 63). 

The epoxidation of a,P-unsaturated carbonyl compounds with hydrogen peroxide under basic biphase condition, known as the Weitz-Scheffer epoxidation (Scheme 64) is a very convenient and efficient method for giving the epoxides. 

Not only oxidants with nucleophilic character but also intermediates of electrophilic nature can be used in the enantioselective epoxidation of a,p-unsaturated carbonyl compounds. Among the possible candidates, dioxirane reagents have been successfully used for this purpose. Contrary to the usual nucleophilic oxidants, dioxiranes add to double bonds in a concerted manner. These dioxiranes could be easily prepared in situ by reaction of oxone (2KHS05-KHS0 K3S0 ) with chiral ketones. Chiral ketones derived from quinic acid such as compounds 61 [67], which have been successfully used in the enantioselective epoxidation of electron rich olefins, have been also applied to the epoxidation of electron poor olefins such as chalcone 7 or a,P-unsaturated esters 59 (Scheme 4.10) to give the corresponding... 

Iminium catalysis has been quite successful for asymmetric epoxidation of a,P-unsaturated carbonyl compounds, particularly, enals. Enones have remained difficult substrates. Recently, List and coworkers reported an enantioselective epoxidation of cyclic enones with either cinchona-based primary amine 38 or a counter-anion catalytic systan 149 combining a chiral vicinal diamine and a chiral phosphoric acid [69], High enantioseleclivities could be achieved in a number of cyclic enones (Scheme 5.40). 

In addition to their reactions with acid chlorides, epoxides, and a,P-unsaturated carbonyl compounds (Sections 20.13-20.15), organocuprate reagents (R2CuLi) also react with organic halides R X to form coupling products R-R that contain a new C-C bond. Only one R group of the organocuprate is transferred to form the product, while the other becomes part of RCu, a reaction by-product. 

In sharp contrast to the oxidation reactions of electron-rich olefins just described, attempts to carry out nucleophilic epoxidation reactions of a,p-unsaturated carbonyl compounds have enjoyed only limited success (Scheme 8.7) [19]. The most successful attempts have been with chalcones, using standard basic peroxidation conditions with additives such as a quinine-derived phase-transfer catalyst first... 

Hydroxybenziodoxole 104 can be readily converted into its acetoxy derivative, l-acetoxy-1,2-benziodoxole-3(l//)-one (88, 2X = O, Y = OAc), by heating 104 with acetic anhydride and the acetoxy derivative can be further converted into the alkoxy derivatives by treatment with an appropriate alcohol [280], The tetrabutylanmionium salt of hydroxybenziodoxole 104 has been prepared by the reaction of hydroxybenziodoxole with tetrabutylammonium fluoride in THF it is a mild oxidant that is useful for the preparation of epoxides from a,p-unsaturated carbonyl compounds [281], l-Hydroxy-l,2-benziodoxole-3(l//)-one and l-acetoxy-l,2-benziodoxole-3(l//)-one have found wide application as starting compounds for the synthesis of various benziodoxole-based hypervalent iodine reagents by ligand exchange on iodine [239]. 

Epoxidation of aldehydes and ketones is the most profound utility of the Corey-Chaykovsky reaction. As noted in section 1.1.1, for an a,P-unsaturated carbonyl compound, 1 adds preferentially to the olefin to provide the cyclopropane derivative. On the other hand, the more reactive 2 generally undergoes the methylene transfer to the carbonyl, giving rise to the corresponding epoxide. For instance, treatment of P-ionone (26) with 2, derived from trimethylsulfonium chloride and NaOH in the presence of a phase-transfer catalyst Et4BnNCl, gave rise to vinyl epoxide 27 exclusively. ... 

The epoxidation of electron-deficient alkenes, particularly a,P-unsaturated carbonyl compounds, continues to generate much activity in the literature, and this has been the subject of a recent concise review <00CC1215>. Additional current contributions in this area include a novel epoxidation of enones via direct oxygen atom transfer from hypervalent oxido-).3-iodanes (38), a process which proceeds in fair to good yields and with complete retention of... 

Thiols may be enantioselectiveiy added in a conjugate fashion to a,p-unsaturated carbonyl compounds in the presence of chiral hydroxyamine catalysts e.g. chinchona alkaloids).242,244 249 252-261-269 In some cases ee of up to >80% were achieved e.g. Scheme 77).242-261-262 This methodology was utilized for the kinetic resolution of compound rat-86 Scheme 34) in a multigram scale.94 Related enantioselective 1,4-additions of thioacetates270-271 and selenophenols272 to enones are also known. Epoxidations, based on the asymmetric nucleophilic addition of peroxide anions to enones, are discussed separately.273... 

This titanocene-catalyzed procedure was immediately extended by Gansauer et al. to the enantioselective opening of meso-epoxides by employing substoichiometric quantities of titanocene complexes with chiral hgands [58-60]. It has also been applied by this group in racemic form not only for reductive epoxide openings and intermolecular additions to a,P-unsaturated carbonyl compounds, but also to achieve 3-exo, 4-exo, and 5-exo cycliza-tions, as well as tandem cyclization addition reactions featuring vinyl radicals (Scheme 9) [8,9,44,46,57,61-65]. 

In the benzoin condensation, one molecule of aldehyde serves as an electrophile. If a carbanion is generated from protected cyanohydrins, a-aminonitriles or dithioacetals, it can react with electrophiles such as alkyl halides, strongly activated aryl halides or alkyl tosylates to form ketones. Amongst other electrophiles which are attacked by the above carbanions are heterocyclic A -oxides, carbonyl compounds, a,p-unsaturated carbonyl compounds, a,3-unsaturated nitriles, acyl halides, Mannich bases, epoxides and chlorotiimethyl derivatives of silicon, germanium and tin. 

The two types of sulfur ylides also differ in their reactions with a,p-unsaturated carbonyl compounds. The highly reactive sulfonium ylides react rapidly by 1,2-addition across the carbon-oxygen double bond to yield the epoxides. On the other hand, the less reactive sulfoxonium ylides react by slower conjugate addition (1,4-addition) to give substituted ketocyclopropanes. Thus, dimethylsulfonium methylide (21) reacts rapidly with benzylideneacetophenone (chalcone) (37)... 

These reagents are strong Lewis acids that cleave THF and acetals (Section 2.4). Nevertheless, they leave bromo- and chloroderivatives intact (Section 2.1). The regioselectivity of the opening of epoxides is opposite to that observed for LAH in THF (Section 2.3). Diarylcarbinols can be reduced to hydrocarbons (Section 2.4), and a,p-unsaturated carbonyl compounds to allylic alcohols (Section 3.2.9). The reduction of amides to amines is easier than with LAH (Section 3.2.8), especially in the case of a,p-ethylenic amides or of -lactams. These reagents do not reduce NO2 groups. 

Dimethylsulfonium methylide and dimethylsulfoxonium methylide also differ in their reachons with a,p-unsaturated carbonyl compounds. The sulfonium ylide reacts at the carbonyl group to form an epoxide, but with the sulfoxonium ylide a cyclopropane derivative is obtained by Michael addihon to the carbon-carbon double bond. The difference is again due to the fact that the kinehcally favoured reachon of the sulfonium yhde with the carbonyl group is irreversible, whereas the corresponding reaction with the sulfoxonium yhde is reversible, allowing preferenhal formahon of the thermodynamically more stable product from the Michael addihon. For example, the cyclopropane 112 is obtained from the reaction of dimethylsulfoxonium methylide with the enone 111 (1.105). Other methods for the formahon of cyclopropanes include carbene and Simmons-Smith-type... 

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