Epoxides a,p-unsaturated

The Baylis-Hillman reaction is a highly useful and general method for the synthesis of allylic alcohols. A method to convert the product of a Baylis-Hillman reaction to an epoxidized a,P-unsaturated ketone has been reported <05TL8895>. lodosobenzene and KBr... 

A selective and reactive oxidizing agent. Will epoxidize a,P-unsaturated carbonyl compounds. In epoxidation reactions, there is a strong steric influence directing the facial selectivity ... 

Ketone 25 has shown to provide high ee s and good yields for epoxidation of a number of electron-deficient a,p-unsaturated esters, whereas ketone 2 epoxidizes a,P-unsaturated esters sluggishly due to the low reactivity of its dioxirane as an electrophilic reagent toward electron-deficient olefins. 

A traditional way to epoxidize a,p-unsaturated carbonyl compounds in aqueous meda is the Michael reaction with alkaline hydroperoxides [Ij. Baeyer-Villiger oxidation is a concomitant reaction, making double-bond epoxidation a delicate procedure. 

The methodology used in the preparation of RU 486 (84) and other ll -steroids is shown. Conjugate addition of a cuprate reagent to the a,P-unsaturated epoxide (85) provides the liP-substituted steroid (86) stereospecificaHy (131). Subsequent steps lead to the synthesis of RU 486 (84). 

Reaction conditions depend on the reactants and usually involve acid or base catalysis. Examples of X include sulfate, acid sulfate, alkane- or arenesulfonate, chloride, bromide, hydroxyl, alkoxide, perchlorate, etc. RX can also be an alkyl orthoformate or alkyl carboxylate. The reaction of cycHc alkylating agents, eg, epoxides and a2iridines, with sodium or potassium salts of alkyl hydroperoxides also promotes formation of dialkyl peroxides (44,66). Olefinic alkylating agents include acycHc and cycHc olefinic hydrocarbons, vinyl and isopropenyl ethers, enamines, A[-vinylamides, vinyl sulfonates, divinyl sulfone, and a, P-unsaturated compounds, eg, methyl acrylate, mesityl oxide, acrylamide, and acrylonitrile (44,66). 

Physical and Chemical Properties. The (F)- and (Z)-isomers of cinnamaldehyde are both known. (F)-Cinnamaldehyde [14371-10-9] is generally produced commercially and its properties are given in Table 2. Cinnamaldehyde undergoes reactions that are typical of an a,P-unsaturated aromatic aldehyde. Slow oxidation to cinnamic acid is observed upon exposure to air. This process can be accelerated in the presence of transition-metal catalysts such as cobalt acetate (28). Under more vigorous conditions with either nitric or chromic acid, cleavage at the double bond occurs to afford benzoic acid. Epoxidation of cinnamaldehyde via a conjugate addition mechanism is observed upon treatment with a salt of /-butyl hydroperoxide (29). 

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. ... 

Due to the high reactivity of sulfonium ylide 2 for a,P-unsaturated ketone substrates, it normally undergoes methylene transfer to the carbonyl to give the corresponding epoxides. However, cyclopropanation did take place when 1,1-diphenylethylene and ethyl cinnamate were treated with 2 to furnish cyclopropanes 53 and 54, respectively. 

Until this work, the reactions between the benzyl sulfonium ylide and ketones to give trisubstituted epoxides had not previously been used in asymmetric sulfur ylide-mediated epoxidation. It was found that good selectivities were obtained with cyclic ketones (Entry 6), but lower diastereo- and enantioselectivities resulted with acyclic ketones (Entries 7 and 8), which still remain challenging substrates for sulfur ylide-mediated epoxidation. In addition they showed that aryl-vinyl epoxides could also be synthesized with the aid of a,P-unsaturated sulfonium salts lOa-b (Scheme 1.4). 

With electron-deficient aromatic substrates (Entries 4 and 5), high yields and selectivities were observed, but enantioselectivities were variable and solvent-de-pendent (compare Entry 6 with 7 and see Section 1.2.1.3 for further discussion). With a,P-unsaturated tosylhydrazone salts, selectivities and yields were lower. The scope of this process has been extensively mapped out, enabling the optimum disconnection for epoxidation to be chosen [10]. 

Vinylic sulfides containing an a hydrogen can also be alkylated by alkyl halides or epoxides. This is a method for converting an alkyl halide RX to an a,P unsaturated aldehyde, which is the synthetic equivalent of the unknown HC=CH—CHO ion. Even simple alkyl aryl sulfides RCH2SAr and RR CHSAr have been alkylated a to the sulfur. ... 

Sulfonic peracids (66) have also been applied recently to the preparation of acid sensitive oxiranes and for the epoxidation of allylic and homoallylic alcohols, as well as relatively unreactive a, p - unsaturated ketones. These reagents, prepared in situ from the corresponding sulfonyl imidazolides 65, promote the same sense of diastereoselectivity as the conventional peracids, but often to a higher degree. In particular, the epoxidation of certain A -3-ketosteroids (e.g., 67) with sulfonic peracids 66 resulted in the formation of oxirane products (e.g., 68) in remarkably high diastereomeric excess. This increased selectivity is most likely the result of the considerable steric requirements about the sulfur atom, which enhances non-bonded interactions believed to be operative in the diastereoselection mechanism <96TET2957>. 

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. 

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... 

Finally, chiral epoxides can be prepared from a,p-unsaturated carbonyl compounds through an entirely different approach, in which the epoxide oxygen is derived from the carbonyl moiety. For example, trans-aryl-vinyl epoxides 52 can be synthesized from conjugated aldehydes 50 and chiral sulfonium salts 51, with excellent ee s. The protocol is especially effective for substrates which bear a p-mcthoxy group on the aryl substituent <00TL7309>. 

The N-anthracenylmethyl ammonium catalysts 11 and 12 also proved to be very effective in the asymmetric epoxidation of a,p-unsaturated ketones utilizing aqueous sodium165,661 or potassium1671 hypochlorite solution as an oxidant. Protection of the hydroxyl group in the N-anthracenylmethyl ammonium salts may be essential to attain high enanti-oselectivities in the epoxidation165"671, and use of... 

Epoxidation is another important area which has been actively investigated on asymmetric phase transfer catalysis. Especially, the epoxidation of various (i.)-a,p-unsaturated ketones 68 has been investigated in detail utilizing the ammonium salts derived from cinchonine and cinchonidine, and highly enantioselective and diastereoselective epoxidation has now been attained. When 30 % aqueons H202 was utilized in the epoxidation of various a, 3-unsaturated ketones 68, use of the 4-iodobenzyl cin-choninium bromide 7 (R=I, X=Br) together with LiOH in Bu20 afforded the a,p-epoxy ketones 88 up to 92% ee,1641 as shown in Table 5. The O-substituted... 

S. Arai, H. Tsuge, T. Shioiri, Asymmetric Epoxidation of a,p-Unsaturated Ketones under Phase-Transfer Catalyzed Conditions , Tetrahedron Lett. 1998,39,7563-7566. 

Epoxidation of a,p-unsaturated ketones using sodium perborate... 

The catalytic asymmetric epoxidation of a,p-unsaturated aldehydes has also been an important challenge in iminium catalysis and for chemical synthesis in general. More recently, Jprgensen and coworkers have developed an asymmetric organocatalytic approach to ot, (3-epoxy aldehydes using pyrrolidine catalyst 20 and H2O2 as the stoichiometric oxidant. The reaction appears to be extremely general and will likely receive wide attention from the chemical synthesis community (Scheme 11.6b). 

Epoxidations and Darzens Condensations The asymmetric catalytic epoxida-tion of a,p-unsaturated ketones using cinchona alkaloid-derived catalysts was introduced in the 19708. However, high levels of enantioselectivity were achieved only 20 years later, when Lygo, Arai, 2-t94 others P ... 

It is worth noting that use of unprotected diarylprolinol 33 provides an effective platform for the epoxidation of a,P-unsaturated ketones [148, 149]. Within these reports it was proposed that an alternative mode of activation of the substrate could be taking place. Hydrogen bonding catalysis, rather than iminium ion formation, could explain the results and would be consistent with the non-polar reaction medium adopted within these reactions. 

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