Epoxides acid-catalyzed

Acid catalyzed nng opening of epoxides is discussed in Section 16 13... 

Epoxidation of an alkene followed by lithium aluminum hydride reduction of the result mg epoxide gives the same alcohol that would be obtained by acid catalyzed hydration (Section 610) of the alkene... 

Predict which carbon undergoes nucleophilic attack on acid catalyzed ring opening of cis 3 3 3 tnfluoro 2 3 epoxybutane Examine the C—O bond distances of the protonated form of the epoxide on Learning By Modeling How do these bond distances compare with your prediction" ... 

Garyophyllene. (-)-CaryophyUene can be isolated from Indian turpentine and has been used to prepare a number of woody aroma products. The epoxides are produced by reaction with peracids. Acetylation of caryophyUene also gives a usehil methyl ketone (180) (Fig. 8). Acid-catalyzed rearrangement of caryophyUene in the presence of acetic acid gives a mixture of esters, which are related to caryolan-l-ol and clovan-2-ol (181). 

Maltol. Otsuka Chemical Co. in Japan has operated several electroorganic processes on a small commercial scale. It has used plate and frame and aimular cells at currents in the range of 4500—6000 A (133). The process for the synthesis of maltol [118-71 -8], a food additive and flavor enhancer, starts from furfural [98-01-1] (see Food additives Flavors and spices). The electrochemical step is the oxidation of a-methylfurfural to give a cycHc acetal. The remaining reaction sequence is acid-catalyzed ring expansion, epoxidation with hydrogen peroxide, and then acid-catalyzed rearrangement to yield maltol, ie ... 

Acetic anhydride has also been used as the acylating agent. The formation of thiiranes from thiocyanatohydrins having a tertiary hydroxy group is best achieved by p-toluenesulfonic acid-catalyzed acetylation.The analogous thiocyanatohydrins with a secondary hydroxyl and a tertiary thiocyanate function give a predominance of epoxide from thiocyanatohydrin acetates since the hydrolysis rate of the secondary acetate grouping becomes competitive with that of the tertiary thiocyanate. 

Acid-catalyzed epoxide opening takes place by protonation of the epoxide to increase its reactivity, followed by nucleophilic addition of water. This nucleophilic addition is analogous to the final step of alkene bromination, in which a cyclic bromonium ion is opened by a nucleophile (Section 7.2). That is,... 

Alkenes are reduced by addition of H2 in the presence of a catalyst such as platinum or palladium to yield alkanes, a process called catalytic hydrogenation. Alkenes are also oxidized by reaction with a peroxyacid to give epoxides, which can be converted into lTans-l,2-diols by acid-catalyzed epoxide hydrolysis. The corresponding cis-l,2-diols can be made directly from alkenes by hydroxylation with 0s04. Alkenes can also be cleaved to produce carbonyl compounds by reaction with ozone, followed by reduction with zinc metal. 

Diols can be prepared either by direct hydroxylation of an alkene with 0s04 followed by reduction with NaHSOj or by acid-catalyzed hydrolysis of an epoxide (Section 7.8). The 0s04 reaction occurs with syn stereochemistry to give a cis diol, and epoxide opening occurs with anti stereochemistry to give a trans diol. 

The mechanisms of these acid-catalyzed epoxide openings are more complex than they at first appear. They seem to be neither purely SN1 nor SN2 but instead to be midway between the two extremes and to have characteristics of both. Take the reaction of 1,2-epoxy-l-methylcyclohexane with HBr shown in Figure 18.2, for instance. The reaction yields only a single stereoisomer of 2-bromo-2-methyl-cyclohexanol in which the —Br and —OH groups are trans, an S 2-li.ke result caused by backside displacement of the epoxide oxygen. But the fact that Br attacks the more hindered tertiary side of the epoxide rather than the less hindered secondary side is an SN1 -like result in which the more stable, tertiary carbocation is involved. 

Evidently, the transition state for acid-catalyzed epoxide opening has an Sn2 -like geometry but also has a large amount of S]v-l-like carbocationic character- Since the positive charge in the protonated epoxide is shared by the more highly substituted carbon atom, backside attack of Br- occurs at the more highly substituted site. 

Mori et al. have demonstrated the most dramatic uses of lithiated epoxides in natural product synthesis [62]. By employing the chemistry developed by Jackson, and subsequently performing a Lewis acid-catalyzed (BF3 OEt2) cyclisation, tetra-hydrofuran, tetrahydropyran, and oxepane rings are readily accessed this strategy is demonstrated by the synthesis of the marine epoxy lipid 173 (Scheme 5.40) [63]. 

The use of various heterocyclic additives in the MTO-catalyzed epoxidation has been demonstrated to be of great importance for substrate conversion, as well as for the product selectivity. With regard to selectivity, the role of the additive is obviously to protect the product epoxides from deleterious, acid-catalyzed (Brons-ted or Lewis acid) ring-opening reactions. This can be achieved by direct coordination of the heterocyclic additive to the rhenium metal, thereby significantly decreasing its Lewis acidity. In addition, the basic nature of the additives will increase the pH of the reaction media. 

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