Epoxidation other reactions

Some cleavage takes place even if the phenoHc hydroxyl is blocked as an ether link to another phenylpropane unit and quinonemethide formation is prevented. If the a- or y-carbon hydroxyl is free, alkaH-catalyzed neighboring-group attack can take place with epoxide formation and P-aryloxide elimination. In other reactions, blocked phenoHc units are degraded if an a-carbonyl group is present. 

Other reactions involving the hydrogen atom of the hydroxyl group in ethyl alcohol include the opening of epoxide rings to form hydroxy ethers. 

It is appropriate at this juncture to address some of the more useful transformations of 2,3-epoxy alcohols.913 A 2,3-epoxy alcohol such as compound 14 possesses two obvious electrophilic sites one at C-2, and the other at C-3. But in addition, C-l of a 2,3-epoxy alcohol also has latent electrophilic reactivity. For example, exposure of 14 to aqueous sodium hydroxide solution results in the formation of triol 19 in 79% yield (see Scheme 5). In this interesting transformation, hydroxide ion induces the establishment of an equilibrium between 2,3-epoxy-l-ol 14 and the isomeric 1,2-epoxy-3-ol 18. This reversible, base-induced epoxide migration reaction is a process known as the Payne rearrangement.14... 

Other reactions not described here are formal [3 -i- 2] cycloadditions of a,p-unsaturated acyl-fluorides with allylsilanes [116], or the desymmetrization of meso epoxides [117]. For many of the reactions shown above, the planar chiral Fe-sandwich complexes are the first catalysts allowing for broad substrate scope in combination with high enantioselectivities and yields. Clearly, these milestones in asymmetric Lewis-base catalysis are stimulating the still ongoing design of improved catalysts. 

In vitro studies of DNA interactions with the reactive ben-zo[a]pyrene epoxide BPDE indicate that physical binding of BPDE occurs rapidly on a millisecond time scale forming a complex that then reacts much more slowly on a time scale of minutes (17). Several reactive events follow formation of the physical complex. The most favorable reaction is the DNA catalyzed hydrolysis of BPDE to the tetrol, BPT (3,5,6,8,17). At 25°C and pH=7.0, the hydrolysis of BPDE to BPT in DNA is as much as 80 times faster than hydrolysis without DNA (8). Other reactions which follow formation of physical complexes include those involving the nucleotide bases and possibly the phosphodiester backbone. These can lead to DNA strand scission (9 34, 54-56) and to the formation of stable BPDE-DNA adducts. Adduct formation occurs at the exocyclic amino groups on the nucleotide bases and at other sites (1,2,9,17,20, 28,33,34,57,58). The pathway which leads to hydrocarbon adducts covalently bound to the 2-amino group of guanine has been the most widely studied. 

While the cytochrome P-450 monooxygenase reaction described in Eq. (1) often involves hydroxylation of carbon, many other reactions are catalyzed by these enzyme systems. These reactions include oxidation of nitrogen and sulfur, epoxidation, dehalogenation, oxidative deamination and desulfuration, oxidative N-, O-, and S-dealkylation, and peroxidative reactions (56). Under anaerobic conditions, the enzyme system will also catalyze reduction of azo, nitro, N-oxide, and epoxide functional groups, and these reductive reactions have been recently reviewed (56, 57). Furthermore, the NADPH-cytochrome P-450 reductase is capable of catalyzing reduction of quinones, quinonimines, nitro-aromatics, azoaromatics, bipyridyliums, and tetrazoliums (58). 

It is prepared by dropwise addition of 70% H202 to a solution of benzoic acid dissolved in methane solphonic acid and keeping the temperature around 25-30°. After the addition the solution is cooled to 15°, diluted with ice and cold saturated (NH4)2S04 solution to decrease the solubility. It is finally extracted with benzene. The solution is directly used for epoxidation and other reactions. 

This epoxidation of AFB has been associated with aldrin epoxidase (AE) activity in trout (30). As with other epoxide carcinogens, OAFB may be a substrate 7or epoxide metabolizing enzyme systems such as epoxide hydrase (EH) (EC4.2.1.63) and glutathione-S-epoxide transferase (GTr) (EC4.4.1.7) found in mammals and fish (31, 32, 33, 34). AFB also undergoes a variety of other reactions, generally to less toxic metabolites depending on the species of animal involved (35, 36). The primary AFB metabolite in rainbow trout has been shown to be a reduced form of AFB, aflatoxicol (AFL) (24). 

In addition to the epoxidation of olefins, zeolitic materials have been studied for other fine chemical transformations. Table 12.21 indexes the zeolites used for oxidative dehydrogenation of propane, direct hydroxylation of benzene to phenol and e-caprolactam synthesis. A recent review summarizes other reactions for which there is not enough space in the table [138, 139]. 

Aluminum porphyrins with alkoxide, carboxylate, or enolate can also activate CO2, some catalytically. For example, Al(TPP)OMe (prepared from Al(TPP)Et with methanol) can bring about the catalytic formation of cyclic carbonate or polycarbonate from CO2 and epoxide [Eq. (6)], ° - and Al(TPP)OAc catalyzes the formation of carbamic esters from CO2, dialkylamines, and epoxide. Neither of the reactions requires activation by visible light, in contrast to the reactions involving the alkylaluminum precursors. Another key difference is that the ethyl group in Al(TPP)Et remains in the propionate product after CO2 insertion, whereas the methoxide or acetate precursors in the other reactions do not, indicating that quite different mechanisms are possibly operating in these processes. Most of this chemistry has been followed via spectroscopic (IR and H NMR) observation of the aluminum porphyrin species, and by organic product analysis, and relatively little is known about the details of the CO2 activation steps. 

Since group 4 derived species are of particular interest as catalysts for olefin polymerization and epoxidation reactions, the thermal stability of surface metal-alkyl species, as weU as their reactivity towards water, alcohols and water, deserve some attention. On the other hand, mono(siloxy) metaUiydrocarbyl species can be converted into bis- or tris(siloxy)metal hydrides by reaction with hydrogen [16, 41, 46-48]. Such species are less susceptible to leaching and can be used as pre-catalysts for the hydrogenolysis of C-C bonds, alkane metathesis and, eventually, for epoxidation and other reactions. 

Silylformylation, defined as the addition of RsSi- and -CHO across various types of bonds using a silane R3SiH, CO, and a transition metal catalyst, was discovered by Murai and co-workers, who developed the Co2(CO)8-catalyzed silylformylation of aldehydes, epoxides, and cyclic ethers [26]. More recently, as described in detail in Section 5.3.1, below, alkynes and alkenes have been successfully developed as silylformylation substrates. These reactions represent a powerful variation on hydroformylation, in that a C-Si bond is produced instead of a C-H bond. Given that C-Si groups are subject to, among other reactions, oxidation to C-OH groups, silylformylation could represent an oxidative carbonylation of the type described in Scheme 5.1. 

Haloperoxidases are peroxidases capable of halogenating substrates in the presence of halide and hydrogen peroxide [14] or other reactions such as sulfoxidation, epoxidation and aromatic hydroxylation. Here, the halide ion is initially bound to the active site which may incorporate heme or vanadium or be metal free. The halide ion is incorporated into the substrate after electron transfer... 

Among other reactions, the synthesis of the epoxide-N-oxide from retronecine should be mentioned82 the epoxide yields rosmarinecine on hydrogenation over Raney nickel (see Section III, A). The epoxy group has been recently demonstrated to be a constituent of certain... 

Reaction of alkynyilithium reagents with epoxides. This reaction, particularly in the case of substituted epoxides, can be sluggish when conducted in THF alone. Doolittle1 has examined the effect of various cosolvents. Use of THF-HMPT (1 1) results in high yields and reasonable reaction rates at 0°. Of other additives examined, TMF.DA is equivalent to HMPT and is more effective than DABCO or ethylenediamine. Note that use of HMPT does not permit reaction of 1-dodecynyllithium with either cis- or trans-2,3-dimethyloxiranc even at 50° for 2 hours. 

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