Metal enantioselective epoxidation

In 1990, Jacobsen and subsequently Katsuki independently communicated that chiral Mn(III)salen complexes are effective catalysts for the enantioselective epoxidation of unfunctionalized olefins. For the first time, high enantioselectivities were attainable for the epoxidation of unfunctionalized olefins using a readily available and inexpensive chiral catalyst. In addition, the reaction was one of the first transition metal-catalyzed... 

A chiral diphosphine ligand was bound to silica via carbamate links and was used for enantioselective hydrogenation.178 The activity of the neutral catalyst decreased when the loading was increased. It clearly indicates the formation of catalytically inactive chlorine-bridged dimers. At the same time, the cationic diphosphine-Rh catalysts had no tendency to interact with each other (site isolation).179 New cross-linked chiral transition-metal-complexing polymers were used for the chemo- and enantioselective epoxidation of olefins.180... 

Metal alkoxides undergo alkoxide exchange with alcoholic compounds such as alcohols, hydro-xamic acids, and alkyl hydroperoxides. Alkyl hydroperoxides themselves do not epoxidize olefins. However, hydroperoxides coordinated to a metal ion are activated by coordination of the distal oxygen (O2) and undergo epoxidation (Scheme 1). When the olefin is an allylic alcohol, both hydroperoxide and olefin are coordinated to the metal ion and the epoxidation occurs swiftly in an intramolecular manner.22 Thus, the epoxidation of an allylic alcohol proceeds selectively in the presence of an isolated olefin.23,24 In this metal-mediated epoxidation of allylic alcohols, some alkoxide(s) (—OR) do not participate in the epoxidation. Therefore, if such bystander alkoxide(s) are replaced with optically active ones, the epoxidation is expected to be enantioselective. Indeed, Yamada et al.25 and Sharp less et al.26 independently reported the epoxidation of allylic alcohols using Mo02(acac)2 modified with V-methyl-ephedrine and VO (acac)2 modified with an optically active hydroxamic acid as the catalyst, respectively, albeit with modest enantioselectivity. 

Kureshy developed a polymer-based chiral Mn-salen complex (Figure 21). Copolymerization of styrene, divinylbenzene, and 4-vinylpyridine generated highly cross-linked (50%) porous beads loaded with pyridine ligands at 3.8 mmol g-1. Once the polymer was charged with the metal complex catalyst, enantioselective epoxidation of styrene derivatives was achieved with ee values in the range 16 46%. 79... 

HOfit, E. Enantioselective Epoxidation with Peroxidic Oxygen. 164, 63-77 (1993). Hoggard, P. E. Sharp-Line Electronic Spectra and Metal-Ligand Geometry. 171, 113-142... 

A number of additional metal-catalyzed epoxidations have been reported in the past year. Platinum is a rarely used catalyst in oxidation reactions. The use of chiral Pt-catalyst 2 in the epoxidation of terminal alkenes provides the epoxide products in moderate yield and enantiomeric excess <06JA14006>. The chiral hydroxamide 3 is used with a Mo catalyst to provide the epoxide product in excellent yields and moderate enantioselectivity <06AG(I)5849>. A bis-titanium catalyst, 4, has also been used to epoxidize the usual set of alkenes with H202 as the oxidant <06AG(I)3478>. 

N. S. Finney, Enantioselective Epoxide Hydrolysis Catalysis Involving Microbes, Mammals and Metals , Chem. Biol. 1998, 5(4), R73 - R79. 

Optically active epoxides are important building blocks in asymmetric synthesis of natural products and biologically active compounds. Therefore, enantio-selective epoxidation of olefins has been a subject of intensive research in the last years. The Sharpless [56] and Jacobsen [129] epoxidations are, to date, the most efficient metal-catalyzed asymmetric oxidation of olefins with broad synthetic scope. Oxidative enzymes have also been successfully utilized for the synthesis of optically active epoxides. Among the peroxidases, only CPO accepts a broad spectrum of olefinic substrates for enantioselective epoxidation (Eq. 6), as shown in Table 8. 

Enantioselective epoxidation of aUylic alcohols with tantalum surface species prepared by alcoholysis of [(=SiO)Ta(=CH Bu)(CH2 Bu)2j strongly suggests that other transition metals from group 5 and 6 might be used. 

More examples are found for varied oxidation processes mainly for various epoxidations carried out by metal catalysts bearing F-modified ligands, such as porphyrins,139 Ru perfluoroacetylacetonate salt,140 or salen complexes,141 142 or using the 3 selenium compound as catalyst.143 The potential for enantioselective transformations offering an easy way to recover precious chiral reagents and catalysts was demonstrated in enantioselective epoxidation using fluorous chiral salen... 

In the metal-free epoxidation of enones and enoates, practically useful yields and enantioselectivity have been achieved by using catalysts based on chiral electrophilic ketones, peptides, and chiral phase-transfer agents. (E)-configured acyclic enones are comparatively easy substrates that can be converted to enantiomeri-cally highly enriched epoxides by all three methods. Currently, chiral ketones/ dioxiranes constitute the only catalyst system that enables asymmetric and metal-free epoxidation of (E)-enoates. There seems to be no metal-free method for efficient asymmetric epoxidation of achiral (Z)-enones. Exocyclic (E)-enones have been epoxidized with excellent ee using either phase-transfer catalysis or polyamino acids. In contrast, generation of enantiopure epoxides from normal endocyclic... 

Scheme 5. First nucleophilic enantioselective epoxide opening with enantiopure transition metal Lewis acid 29.

Transition-metal-catalysed epoxidations work only on allylic alcohols, so there is one limitation to the method, but otherwise there are few restrictions on what can be epoxidized enantioselectively. When this reaction was discovered in 1981 it was by far the best asymmetric reaction known. Because of its importance, a lot of work went into discovering exactly how the reaction worked, and the scheme below shows what is believed to be the active complex, formed from two titanium atoms bridged by two tartrate ligands (shown in gold). Each titanium atom retains two of its isopropoxide ligands, and is coordinated to one of the carbonyl groups of the tartrate ligand. The reaction works best if the titanium and tartrate are left to stir for a while so that these dimers can form cleanly. 

A so far still unsolved problem is the direct enantioselective epoxidation of simple terminal olefins. For example the epoxidation of propylene that was achieved with a 41% ee almost twenty years ago by Strukul and his coworkers using Pt/diphosphine complexes is still unsurpassed. Unfortunately such low ee s are of no practical interest. The problem was circumvented by Jacobsen using hydrolytic kinetic resolution of racemic epoxides (Equation 26) and is practised on a multi 100 kg scale at Chirex. The strategy used is to stereose-lectively open the oxirane ring of a racemic chiral epoxide leaving the other enantiomer intact. Reactions are carried out to a 50% maximum conversion. The catalyst belongs to the metal-salen class described above and can be recycled. The products are separated by fractional distillation. 

Enantioselective Epoxidations of Simple Alkenes with Metal-Containing Reagents... 

Many oxo-metal complexes efficiently epoxidize alkenes. Stereoselectivity in these epoxidations is most often achieved by precoordination of functional groups in the substrates. If the metallic centers are embedded in a chiral environment that allows stereoselectivity to rely solely on nonbonded interactions, enantioselective epoxidation may be extended to nonfunctionalized alkenes16. 

Enantioselective Epoxidations of Functionalized Aikenes with Metal-Containing Reagents73... 

Enantioselective Epoxidations of Homoallylic Alcohols by Metal Tartramides... 

Table7. Enantioselective Epoxidation of llomoallylic Alcohols Catalyzed by Metal Tartrates and Tartramides...

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