Sharpless epoxidation catalyst

Although the Sharpless catalyst was extremely useful and efficient for allylic alcohols, the results with ordinary alkenes were very poor. Therefore the search for catalysts that would be enantioselective for non-alcoholic substrates continued. In 1990, the groups of Jacobsen and Katsuki reported on the enantioselective epoxidation of simple alkenes both using catalysts based on chiral manganese salen complexes [8,9], Since then the use of chiral salen complexes has been explored in a large number of reactions, which all utilise the Lewis acid character or the capacity of oxene, nitrene, or carbene transfer of the salen complexes (for a review see [10]). 

A close and well-researched homogeneous analogue of the epoxidation catalyst is the so-called Sharpless catalyst, a homogeneous titanium (TV) catalyst for fhe asymmefric epoxidation of allylic alcohols with f-butyl hydroperoxide (TBHP) [14]. A mechanism has been proposed for this type of epoxidation [15], which can be expressed in a generic form as shown in Fig. 13.4. 

Molybdenum catalysts, Ruthenium porphyrins, Ruthenium(lll) complexes, Iron catalysts, Titanium catalysts. Sharpless epoxidation, Tungsten catalysts, Methyltrioxorhenium, Cobalt, Nickel, Platinum, Aerobic epoxidation, Lanthanum, Ytterbium, Calcium, BINOL-complexes. 2008 Elsevier B.v. 

MG Finn, KB Sharpless. Mechanism of asymmetric epoxidation. 2. Catalyst structure. J Am Chem Soc 113 113-126, 1991. 

In a Sharpless asymmetric epoxidation, the catalyst favors the production of one enantiomer over the other, leading to an observed enantiomeric excess. 

Sharp less asymmetric epoxidation (Section 12.15) An enantioselec-tive oxidation reaction that converts the double bond of an aUyUc alcohol to a predictable enantiomeiicaUy enriched epoxide. Sharpless reagent (Section 12.15) The reagent used in the Sharpless asymmetric epoxidation. The Sharpless reagent consists of tert-butyl hydroperoxide, a titanium catalyst, and one enantiomer of diethyl tartrate. 

The first practical method for asymmetric epoxidation of primary and secondary allylic alcohols was developed by K.B. Sharpless in 1980 (T. Katsuki, 1980 K.B. Sharpless, 1983 A, B, 1986 see also D. Hoppe, 1982). Tartaric esters, e.g., DET and DIPT" ( = diethyl and diisopropyl ( + )- or (— )-tartrates), are applied as chiral auxiliaries, titanium tetrakis(2-pro-panolate) as a catalyst and tert-butyl hydroperoxide (= TBHP, Bu OOH) as the oxidant. If the reaction mixture is kept absolutely dry, catalytic amounts of the dialkyl tartrate-titanium(IV) complex are suflicient, which largely facilitates work-up procedures (Y. Gao, 1987). Depending on the tartrate enantiomer used, either one of the 2,3-epoxy alcohols may be obtained with high enantioselectivity. The titanium probably binds to the diol grouping of one tartrate molecule and to the hydroxy groups of the bulky hydroperoxide and of the allylic alcohol... 

In 1980, Katsuki and Sharpless communicated that the epoxidation of a variety of allylic alcohols was achieved in exceptionally high enantioselectivity with a catalyst derived from titanium(IV) isopropoxide and chiral diethyl tartrate. This seminal contribution described an asymmetric catalytic system that not only provided the product epoxide in remarkable enantioselectivity, but showed the immediate generality of the reaction by examining 5 of the 8 possible substitution patterns of allylic alcohols all of which were epoxidized in >90% ee. Shortly thereafter. Sharpless and others began to illustrate the... 

A noteworthy feature of the Sharpless Asymmetric Epoxidation (SAE) is that kinetic resolution of racemic mixtures of chiral secondary allylic alcohols can be achieved, because the chiral catalyst reacts much faster with one enantiomer than with the other. A mixture of resolved product and resolved starting material results which can usually be separated chromatographically. Unfortunately, for reasons that are not yet fully understood, the AD is much less effective at kinetic resolution than the SAE. 

The second major discovery regarding the use of MTO as an epoxidation catalyst came in 1996, when Sharpless and coworkers reported on the use of substoichio-metric amounts of pyridine as a co-catalyst in the system [103]. A change of solvent from tert-butanol to dichloromethane and the introduction of 12 mol% of pyridine even allowed the synthesis of very sensitive epoxides with aqueous hydrogen peroxide as the terminal oxidant. A significant rate acceleration was also observed for the epoxidation reaction performed in the presence of pyridine. This discovery was the first example of an efficient MTO-based system for epoxidation under neutral to basic conditions. Under these conditions the detrimental acid-induced decomposition of the epoxide is effectively avoided. With this novel system, a variety of... 

Ten years after Sharpless s discovery of the asymmetric epoxidation of allylic alcohols, Jacobsen and Katsuki independently reported asymmetric epoxidations of unfunctionalized olefins by use of chiral Mn-salen catalysts such as 9 (Scheme 9.3) [14, 15]. The reaction works best on (Z)-disubstituted alkenes, although several tri-and tetrasubstituted olefins have been successfully epoxidized [16]. The reaction often requires ligand optimization for each substrate for high enantioselectivity to be achieved. 

The past thirty years have witnessed great advances in the selective synthesis of epoxides, and numerous regio-, chemo-, enantio-, and diastereoselective methods have been developed. Discovered in 1980, the Katsuki-Sharpless catalytic asymmetric epoxidation of allylic alcohols, in which a catalyst for the first time demonstrated both high selectivity and substrate promiscuity, was the first practical entry into the world of chiral 2,3-epoxy alcohols [10, 11]. Asymmetric catalysis of the epoxidation of unfunctionalized olefins through the use of Jacobsen s chiral [(sale-i i) Mi iln] [12] or Shi s chiral ketones [13] as oxidants is also well established. Catalytic asymmetric epoxidations have been comprehensively reviewed [14, 15]. 

Allylic alcohols can be converted to epoxy-alcohols with tert-butylhydroperoxide on molecular sieves, or with peroxy acids. Epoxidation of allylic alcohols can also be done with high enantioselectivity. In the Sharpless asymmetric epoxidation,allylic alcohols are converted to optically active epoxides in better than 90% ee, by treatment with r-BuOOH, titanium tetraisopropoxide and optically active diethyl tartrate. The Ti(OCHMe2)4 and diethyl tartrate can be present in catalytic amounts (15-lOmol %) if molecular sieves are present. Polymer-supported catalysts have also been reported. Since both (-t-) and ( —) diethyl tartrate are readily available, and the reaction is stereospecific, either enantiomer of the product can be prepared. The method has been successful for a wide range of primary allylic alcohols, where the double bond is mono-, di-, tri-, and tetrasubstituted. This procedure, in which an optically active catalyst is used to induce asymmetry, has proved to be one of the most important methods of asymmetric synthesis, and has been used to prepare a large number of optically active natural products and other compounds. The mechanism of the Sharpless epoxidation is believed to involve attack on the substrate by a compound formed from the titanium alkoxide and the diethyl tartrate to produce a complex that also contains the substrate and the r-BuOOH. ... 

Asymmetric epoxidation is another important area of activity, initially pioneered by Sharpless, using catalysts based on titanium tetraisoprop-oxide and either (+) or (—) dialkyl tartrate. The enantiomer formed depends on the tartrate used. Whilst this process has been widely used for the synthesis of complex carbohydrates it is limited to allylic alcohols, the hydroxyl group bonding the substrate to the catalyst. Jacobson catalysts (Formula 4.3) based on manganese complexes with chiral Shiff bases have been shown to be efficient in epoxidation of a wide range of alkenes. 

Sharpless and co-workers have shown how, with a catalyst developed by Sharpless, the rate and selectivity in a,symmetric epoxidation of allylic alcohols can be improved substantially by using molecular sieve 3 A / 4 A (Gao et al., 1987). In some ca.ses, the use of molecular sieves has allowed asymmetric epoxidation, which was not possible with the original catalyst. 

Since its discovery in 1980,7 the Sharpless expoxidation of allylic alcohols has become a benchmark classic method in asymmetric synthesis. A wide variety of primary allylic alcohols have been epoxidized with over 90% optical yield and 70-90% chemical yield using TBHP (r-BuOOH) as the oxygen donor and titanium isopropoxide-diethyl tartrate (DET, the most frequently used dialkyl tartrate) as the catalyst. One factor that simplifies the standard epoxidation reaction is that the active chiral catalyst is generated in situ, which means that the pre-preparation of the active catalyst is not required. 

Use of poly(octamethylene tartrate) in place of dialkyl tartrates offers practical utility since the branched polymers yield hetereogeneous Ti complex catalysts which can be removed by filtration. Overall the work-up procedure is considerably simplified relative to the conventional Sharpless system. In addition, significant induction is shown in the epoxidation of (Z)-allylic alcohols[7] and even with homoallylic[8] species where the dialkyltartrates give very poor results Figure 5.3. Table 5.2 is illustrative of the scope using the polymer ligand. 

It is now clear that asymmetric catalytic hydrogenation is rather successful. However, the initial research work of Sharpless [5] in the asymmetric epoxidation, followed by the results of Jacobsen et al. [6] opened large opportunities for liquid-phase asymmetric oxidation. Sharpless epoxidation has been widely applied in bench-scale organic synthesis, and more recently, salene derivatives emerged among the most effective catalysts in this reaction [7,8],... 

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