Esters synthesis secondary alcohols

Synthesis of the (/ )-Butyrate Esters of Secondary Alcohols hy Dynamic Kinetic Resolution Employing a Bis(tetrafluorosuccinato)-hridged Ru(II) Complex... 

Ester synthesis (acid + alcohol) Reaction preferably with primary alcohols Reaction with primary and secondary alcohols... 

Alcohols are among the most versatile of all organic compounds. They occur widely in nature, are important industrial 7, and have an unusually rich chemistry. The most widely used methods of alcohol synthesis start with carbonyl compounds. Aldehydes, ketones, esters, and carboxylic acids are reduced by reaction with LiAlH4. Aldehydes, esters, and carboxylic acids yield primary alcohols (RCH2OH) on reduction ketones yield secondary alcohols (R2CHOH). 

Step 3 of Figure 29.12 Oxidation and Decarboxylation (2K,3S)-lsocitrate, a secondary alcohol, is oxidized by NAD+ in step 3 to give the ketone oxalosuccinate, which loses C02 to givea-ketoglutarate. Catalyzed by isocitrate dehydrogenase, the decarboxylation is a typical reaction of a /3-keto acid, just like that in the acetoacetic ester synthesis (Section 22.7). The enzyme requires a divalent cation as cofactor, presumably to polarize the ketone carbonyl group. 

Allylsilanes are available by treatment of allyl acetates and allyl carbonates with silyl cuprates17-18, with antarafacial stereochemistry being observed for displacement of tertiary allyl acetates19. This reaction provides a useful asymmetric synthesis of allylsilanes using esters and carbamates derived from optically active secondary alcohols antarafacial stereochemistry is observed for the esters, and suprafacial stereochemistry for the carbamates20,21. 

The addition of Grignard reagents to aldehydes, ketones, and esters is the basis for the synthesis of a wide variety of alcohols, and several examples are given in Scheme 7.3. Primary alcohols can be made from formaldehyde (Entry 1) or, with addition of two carbons, from ethylene oxide (Entry 2). Secondary alcohols are obtained from aldehydes (Entries 3 to 6) or formate esters (Entry 7). Tertiary alcohols can be made from esters (Entries 8 and 9) or ketones (Entry 10). Lactones give diols (Entry 11). Aldehydes can be prepared from trialkyl orthoformate esters (Entries 12 and 13). Ketones can be made from nitriles (Entries 14 and 15), pyridine-2-thiol esters (Entry 16), N-methoxy-A-methyl carboxamides (Entries 17 and 18), or anhydrides (Entry 19). Carboxylic acids are available by reaction with C02 (Entries 20 to 22). Amines can be prepared from imines (Entry 23). Two-step procedures that involve formation and dehydration of alcohols provide routes to certain alkenes (Entries 24 and 25). 

The preparation of enantiomerically pure chemicals is also the theme of the next group of four procedures. The biopolymer polyhydroxybutyric acid, which is now produced on an industrial scale, serves as the starting material for the large scale synthesis of (R)-3-HYDROXYBUTANOIC ACID and (R)-METHYL 3-HYDROXYBUTANOATE. Esters of (-)-camphanic acid are useful derivatives for resolving and determining the enantiomeric purity of primary and secondary alcohols. An optimized preparation of (-)-(1S,4R)-CAMPHANOYL CHLORIDE is provided. The preparation of enantiomerically pure a-hydroxyketones from ethyl lactate is illustrated in the synthesis of (3HS)-[(tert)-BUTYL-DIPHENYLSILYL)OXY]-2-BUTANONE. One use of this chiral a-hydroxyketone is provided in the synthesis of (2S,3S)-3-ACETYL-8-... 

It is always advisable to examine the complete molecular topology in the neighborhood of the chiral carbon atom and to confirm the results by employing another analytical method before the final assignment. In conclusion, Prelog s rule does predict the steric course of an asymmetric synthesis carried out with a chiral a-keto ester, and the predictions have been found to be correct in most cases. Indeed, this method has been widely used for determining the absolute configuration of secondary alcohols. 

The nucleophilic attack on an acceptor-substituted allene can also take place at the acceptor itself, especially in the case of carbonyl groups of aldehydes, ketones or esters. Allenic esters are reduced to the corresponding primary alcohols by means of diisobutylaluminum hydride [18] and the synthesis of a vinylallene (allenene) by Peterson olefination of an allenyl ketone has also been reported [172]. The nucleophilic attack of allenylboranes 189 on butadienals 188 was investigated intensively by Wang and co-workers (Scheme 7.31) [184, 203, 248, 249]. The stereochemistry of the obtained secondary alcohol 190 depends on the substitution pattern. Fortunately, the synthesis of the desired Z-configured hepta-l,2,4-trien-6-ynes 191 is possible both by syn-elimination with the help of potassium hydride and by anti-elimination induced by sulfuric acid. Analogous allylboranes instead of the allenes 189 can be reacted also with the aldehydes 188 [250]. 

Secondary alcohols are oxidized to ketones and primary alcohols are oxidized to esters, when iodonium ion is used as a catalytic mediator as shown in Fig. 4 [35]. This method may have high potentiality in organic synthesis, since it requires only a catalytic amount of KI, whereas most of the hitherto known oxidations usually require more than one equivalent of the oxidizing agent. 

The one-pot dynamic kinetic resolution (DKR) of ( )-l-phenylethanol lipase esterification in the presence of zeolite beta followed by saponification leads to (R)-l phenylethanol in 70 % isolated yield at a multi-gram scale. The DKR consists of two parallel reactions kinetic resolution by transesterification with an immobilized biocatalyst (lipase B from Candida antarctica) and in situ racemization over a zeolite beta (Si/Al = 150). With vinyl octanoate as the acyl donor, the desired ester of (R)-l-phenylethanol was obtained with a yield of 80 % and an ee of 98 %. The chiral secondary alcohol can be regenerated from the ester without loss of optical purity. The advantages of this method are that it uses a single liquid phase and both catalysts are solids which can be easily removed by filtration. This makes the method suitable for scale-up. The examples given here describe the multi-gram synthesis of (R)-l-phenylethyl octanoate and the hydrolysis of the ester to obtain pure (R)-l-phenylethanol. 

The enzymatic resolution of racemic substrates now is a well-established approach for the synthesis of single enantiomers [1, 2]. A representative example is the kinetic resoluhon of secondary alcohols via lipase-catalyzed transesterification for the preparation of enantiomericaUy enriched alcohols and esters [3], The enzymatic resolution in general is straightforward and satisfactory in terms of optical purity, but it has an intrinsic Hmitation in that the theoretical maximum yield of a desirable enantiomer cannot exceed 50%. Accordingly, additional processes such as isolation, racemization and recycling of unwanted isomers are required to obtain the desirable isomer in a higher yield (Scheme 1.1). 

In the initial discovery of the asymmetric synthesis of a-chloro boronic esters 3, the diastereomeric ratios of 3 were estimated by reaction with Grignard reagents to form secondary alkyl boronic esters 5 and deboronation with hydrogen peroxide to secondary alcohols of known absolute configuration and rotation40. 

Carboxylates are stable to anhydrous hydrogen fluoride,30 but as described above, how ever, hemiacetal esters are readily cleaved and fluorinated by anhydrous hydrogen fluoride or 70% hydrogen fluoride/pyridine, this method has been widely applied in the synthesis of glycosyl fluorides from glycosyl esters for reviews see refs 29, 34, 277-279. 288, 289. Furthermore, p-toluene- or methanesulfonates (but not trifluoroacetates) of primary alcohols arc fluorinated by nucleophilic substitution using tctrabutylammonium hydrogen fluoride. This procedure is less suitable for secondary alcohols because of the considerable number of elimination products 306 for example, formation of 1 compared to 2.306... 

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