Katsuki-Sharpless system

Before leaving the area of oxene chemistry, there is one further system worthy of mention the manganese Schiff-base complexes. The Schiff-base complexes were prepared in response to the Katsuki-Sharpless system for stereospecific epoxidation (Figure 2.19).57 The Katsuki-Sharpless system consists of titanium(IV) isopropoxide and ( + )- or (—)-diethyl tartrate with... 

Some stereospecific epoxidations such as the Katsuki-Sharpless system only function with alkyl hydroperoxides. 

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... 

The scope of metal-mediated asymmetric epoxidation of allylic alcohols was remarkably enhanced by a new titanium system introduced by Katsuki and Sharpless epoxidation of allylic alcohols using a titanium(IV) isopropoxide, dialkyl tartrate (DAT), and TBHP (TBHP = tert-butyl-hydroperoxide) proceeds with high enantioselectivity and good chemical yield, regardless of... 

The real breakthrough in the field of enantioselective epoxidation was reached by Sharpless and Katsuki with the development of the catalytic system consisting of titanium tetraisopropoxide and optically active diethyl- or diisopropyl tartrate (DET or DIPT) and water-free TBHP as oxygen donor (Scheme This milestone in synthetic organic... 

In 1980, Katsuki and Sharpless described the first really efficient asymmetric epoxidation of allylic alcohols with very high enantioselectivities (ee 90-95%), employing a combination of Ti(OPr-/)4-diethyl tartrate (DET) as chiral catalyst and TBHP as oxidant Stoichiometric conditions were originally described for this system, however the addition of molecular sieves (which trap water traces) to the reaction allows the epoxidation to proceed under catalytic conditions. The stereochemical course of the reaction may be predicted by the empirical rule shown in equations 40 and 41. With (—)-DET, the oxidant approaches the allylic alcohol from the top side of the plane, whereas the bottom side is open for the (-l-)-DET based reagent, giving rise to the opposite optically active epoxide. Various aspects of this reaction including the mechanism, theoretical investigations and synthetic applications of the epoxy alcohol products have been reviewed and details may be found in the specific literature . 

An actual breakthrough in the field of asymmetric epoxidation was the discovery of a new method for the preparation of homochiral epoxy alcohols by Katsuki and Sharpless in 1980 [13]. The main idea was to change the catalytic system and to use titanium tetraisopropoxide and l-( + )- or d-( — )-diethyl tartrate (DET). With water-free solutions of TBHP various allylic alcohols can be epoxidized with high enantioselectivity. 

Whilst the Sharpless epoxidation with titanium catalysts and the Jacobsen-Katsuki epoxidation with manganese(salen) complexes are at the forefront of enantioselec-tive epoxidation with metal catalysts, there are alternative systems available. Ruthenium pyridinebisoxazoline (PYBOX) complexes have been independently reported, using either phenyliodinium diacetate or sodium periodate as... 

While Table 4 describes the situation in 2001 and many additional processes have been reported. The following analysis is still valid. A look at the processes listed in Table 4 shows that hydrogenation of C=C and C=0 is by far the most predominant transformation applied for industrial processes, followed by epoxidation and dihydroxylation reactions. On the one hand, this is due to the broad scope of cataljrtic hydrogenation and on the other hand it could be attributed to the early success of Knowles with the L-dopa process, because for many years, most academic and industrial research was focused on this transformation. The success with epoxidation and dihydroxylation can essentially be attributed to the efforts of Sharpless, Katsuki, and Jacobsen. If one analyzes the structures of the starting materials, it is quite obvious that many of these compounds are often complex and multifunctional, that is, the successful catalytic systems are not only enantioselective but tolerate many functional groups. 

Diethyl zinc in combination with a chiral aminoalcohol and oxygen as oxidant afforded lactone 46 with up to 32% ee in good yield from 3-phenylcyclobutanone (50) [Eq. (17)] [344]. Applying the Sharpless/Katsuki titanium-based epoxidation system to related substrates gave products with both moderate enantioselectivities and yields [345]. 

---