Metal hydrides epoxides

The importance of reactions with complex, metal hydrides in carbohydrate chemistry is well documented by a vast number of publications that deal mainly with reduction of carbonyl groups, N- and O-acyl functions, lactones, azides, and epoxides, as well as with reactions of sulfonic esters. With rare exceptions, lithium aluminum hydride and lithium, sodium, or potassium borohydride are the... 

Insertion reactions of C02 into the metal-hydride and metal-alkyl bonds are of considerable importance, since these reactions are involved not only in the catalytic cycle of the hydrogenation of C02 into formic acid but also in the catalytic cycle of co-polymerization of C02 and epoxide. In this regard, insertions of C02 into various metal-hydride, metal-alkyl, and similar bonds have been the subject of intense experimental investigation. For instance, C02 insertions into Cu(I)-CH3, Cu(I)-OR, Cu(I)-alkyl [26-28], Ru(II)-H [29], Cr(0)-H, Mo(0)-H, W(0)-H [30], Ni(II)-H and Ni(II)-CH3 bonds [31, 32] have been so far reported. 

In connection with the synthetic work directed towards the total synthesis of polyene macrolide antibiotics -such as amphotericin B (i)- Sharpless and Masamune [1] on one hand, and Nicolaou and Uenishi on the other [2], have developed alternative methods for the enantioselective synthesis of 1,3-diols and, in general, 1, 3, 5...(2n + 1) polyols. One of these methods is based on the Sharpless asymmetric epoxidation of allylic alcohols [3] and regioselective reductive ring opening of epoxides by metal hydrides, such as Red-Al and DIBAL. The second method uses available monosaccharides from the "chiral pool" [4], such as D-glucose. 

Since group 4 derived species are of particular interest as catalysts for olefin polymerization and epoxidation reactions, the thermal stability of surface metal-alkyl species, as weU as their reactivity towards water, alcohols and water, deserve some attention. On the other hand, mono(siloxy) metaUiydrocarbyl species can be converted into bis- or tris(siloxy)metal hydrides by reaction with hydrogen [16, 41, 46-48]. Such species are less susceptible to leaching and can be used as pre-catalysts for the hydrogenolysis of C-C bonds, alkane metathesis and, eventually, for epoxidation and other reactions. 

Catalytic reduction of steroid epoxides received considerable attention before the development of complex metal hydride reducing agents. Hydrogenation of 3 ,4a-epoxy steroids over platinum in acetic acid (Eq. 360), for example, gives rise to a mixture of 3 -hydroxy and 3 -acetoxy steroids.Reductive cleavage thus occur in the same direction as with lithium aluminium hydride in this particular instance —t.r. it gives an axis alcohol. 

Another modified metal hydride, lithium triethylborohydride, the so-called superhydride , has been introduced as a powerful reducing agent especially suitable for trisubstituted, tetrasubstituted and bicy-clic epoxides (Table 3). With trisubstituted epoxides the regiochemistry is completely controlled to give only tertiary alcohols. No skeletal rearrangement is observed for benzonorbomadiene oxide. 

The reverse regiocontrol, giving 1,2-diols, is observed with DIBAL-H (diisobutylaluminum hydride). The remarkable effect of titanium tetraisopropoxide as an additive to lithium borohydride has also been reported. In this reaction benzene is a better solvent than THF, probably because a Ti complex using both oxygens in epoxy alcohols is formed in benzene before the hydride attack. Other metal hydrides used include sodium hydrogen telluride (NaHTe) and an ate complex derived from DIBAL-H and butyllithium, both of which reduce epoxides to alcohols, although they have been tested with only a small number of examples. In the former case the reaction may proceed via a 2-hydroxyalkyltellurol intermediate. 

Hydrogenolysis of epoxides to yield alcohols has been much reported in the patent literature, because of its importance as an industrial process, but studies on reactivity and selectivity have not been done systematically. The selectivity is highly dependent on the substituents, as in the case of reduction using metal hydrides. As a metal catalyst, Raney Ni was intensively examined in the early stage. It usually requires high pressures (ca. 100 atm) and temperatures (100 C), as shown in Table 10. Alcohols, benzene, THF and even water have been used as solvents. Accordingly, a hydroxy group in the epoxides remains intact, and hydrocarbons are formed only as by-products. In some cases by-product formation can... 

Interest in the synthesis of desether muscarine derivatives (6) has developed owing to their activity and specificity, which parallel those of the muscarines. In order to overcome deficiencies in overall yield of a previous photochemical synthesis, a new stereoselective route has been devised (Scheme 1). The readily available cyclo-pentene amide (3) was epoxidized to give (4), which upon treatment with lithium dimethylcuprate provided the amido-alcohol (5). Metal hydride reduction followed... 

Other synthetic routes (especially when the parent alcohol is unstable) include the reaction of a metal hydride (or fluoride) and a perfluoroketone, the reaction of a fluoroacyl chloride with a metal chloride or a metal, and the reactions of fluorinated epoxides with cesium fluoride. 

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