Hydrogen peroxide based epoxidation

The alkene is allowed to react at low temperatures with a mixture of aqueous hydrogen peroxide, base, and a co-solvent to give a low conversion of the alkene (29). These conditions permit reaction of the water-insoluble alkene and minimise the subsequent ionic reactions of the epoxide product. Phase-transfer techniques have been employed (30). A variation of this scheme using a peroxycarbimic acid has been reported (31). 

In 1994, Mansuy and coworkers found that a simple ammonium salt, like ammonium acetate alone, is a very efficient cocatalyst for the metalloporphyrin-catalyzed epoxidation of simple alkenes by hydrogen peroxide ". Bases like sodium carbonate, sodium acetate or tetrabutylammonium hydroxide turned out to promote the porphyrin-catalyzed epoxidation without any other additive. Adducts of hydrogen peroxide (with Na2C03, urea, MesNO, PhsPO), which turned out to be particularly useful for reactions in which the concentration of H2O2 in solution needs to be controlled at a fixed level, have been employed by Johnstone and coworkers. 

Thus, the substituted heteropolyanion is stable and active even in the presence of oxidants such as /-BuOOH or PhIO. Note that the heteropolyanion is unstable with respect to hydrogen peroxide. Based on the high stability, TMSP can be used for alkane hydroxylation [67b]. Mansuy et al. have reported that P2Wn06i (Mn3+ Br)8 is oxidation resistant and more active for the epoxidation of cyclooctene with PhIO than those containing Fe3+, Co2+, Ni2+, or Cu2+ [68]. The oxygenations of cyclohexane, adamantane, and heptane and the hydroxylation of naphthalene, are also catalyzed by TMSP. 

For the epoxidation of extremely unreactive alkenes and for the preparation of epoxides which are highly susceptible to nucleophilic attack, Dimethyldioxirane is the reagent of choice. Electron-deficient alkenes such as a, -unsaturated ketones are usually oxidized with Hydrogen Peroxide/base. 

Epoxidation systems based on molybdenum and tungsten catalysts have been extensively studied for more than 40 years. The typical catalysts - MoVI-oxo or WVI-oxo species - do, however, behave rather differently, depending on whether anionic or neutral complexes are employed. Whereas the anionic catalysts, especially the use of tungstates under phase-transfer conditions, are able to activate aqueous hydrogen peroxide efficiently for the formation of epoxides, neutral molybdenum or tungsten complexes do react with hydrogen peroxide, but better selectivities are often achieved with organic hydroperoxides (e.g., TBHP) as terminal oxidants [44, 45],... 

A particularly interesting system for the epoxidation of propylene to propylene oxide, working under pseudo-heterogeneous conditions, was reported by Zuwei and coworkers [61]. The catalyst, which was based on the Venturello anion combined with long-chained alkylpyridinium cations, showed unique solubility properties. I11 the presence of hydrogen peroxide the catalyst was fully soluble in the solvent, a 4 3 mixture of toluene and tributyl phosphate, but when no more oxidant was left, the tungsten catalyst precipitated and could simply be removed from the... 

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... 

Asymmetric epoxidation of olefins with ruthenium catalysts based either on chiral porphyrins or on pyridine-2,6-bisoxazoline (pybox) ligands has been reported (Scheme 6.21). Berkessel et al. reported that catalysts 27 and 28 were efficient catalysts for the enantioselective epoxidation of aryl-substituted olefins (Table 6.10) [139]. Enantioselectivities of up to 83% were obtained in the epoxidation of 1,2-dihydronaphthalene with catalyst 28 and 2,6-DCPNO. Simple olefins such as oct-l-ene reacted poorly and gave epoxides with low enantioselectivity. The use of pybox ligands in ruthenium-catalyzed asymmetric epoxidations was first reported by Nishiyama et al., who used catalyst 30 in combination with iodosyl benzene, bisacetoxyiodo benzene [PhI(OAc)2], or TBHP for the oxidation of trons-stilbene [140], In their best result, with PhI(OAc)2 as oxidant, they obtained trons-stilbene oxide in 80% yield and with 63% ee. More recently, Beller and coworkers have reexamined this catalytic system, finding that asymmetric epoxidations could be perfonned with ruthenium catalysts 29 and 30 and 30% aqueous hydrogen peroxide (Table 6.11) [141]. Development of the pybox ligand provided ruthenium complex 31, which turned out to be the most efficient catalyst for asymmetric... 

The scope of reactions involving hydrogen peroxide and PTC is large, and some idea of the versatility can be found from Table 4.2. A relatively new combined oxidation/phase transfer catalyst for alkene epoxidation is based on MeRe03 in conjunction with 4-substituted pyridines (e.g. 4-methoxy pyridine), the resulting complex accomplishing both catalytic roles. 

Bentley et al.m recently improved upon Julia s epoxidation reaction. By using urea-hydrogen peroxide complex as the oxidant, l,8-diazabicyclo[5,4,0]undec-7-ene (DBU) as the base and the Itsuno s immobilized poly-D-leucine (Figure 4.2) as the catalyst, the epoxidation of a, (3-unsaturated ketones was carried out in tetrahydrofuran solution. This process greatly reduces the time required when compared to the original reaction using the triphasic conditions. 

Direct phase-transfer catalysed epoxidation of electron-deficient alkenes, such as chalcones, cycloalk-2-enones and benzoquinones with hydrogen peroxide or r-butyl peroxide under basic conditions (Section 10.7) has been extended by the use of quininium and quinidinium catalysts to produce optically active oxiranes [1 — 16] the alkaloid bases are less efficient than their salts as catalysts [e.g. 8]. In addition to N-benzylquininium chloride, the binaphthyl ephedrinium salt (16 in Scheme 12.5) and the bis-cinchonidinium system (Scheme 12.12) have been used [12, 17]. Generally, the more rigid quininium systems are more effective than the ephedrinium salts. 

As a third example for an organocatalytic reaction, based on multiple hydrogen bonding and mechanistically investigated by DFT, we selected olefin epoxidation with hydrogen peroxide in fluorinated alcohol solvents, such as 1,1,1,3,3,3-hex-afluoro-2-propanol (HFIP) (Scheme 8). Here we encounter a new type of catalytic hydrogen bond the cooperative hydrogen bond. 

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