Methane epoxides

Dihydroxydiphenyl- methane Epoxidized soybean oil Acetyl tributyl citrate... 

Silyl ethers serve as preeursors of nucleophiles and liberate a nucleophilic alkoxide by desilylation with a chloride anion generated from CCI4 under the reaction conditions described before[124]. Rapid intramolecular stereoselective reaction of an alcohol with a vinyloxirane has been observed in dichloro-methane when an alkoxide is generated by desilylation of the silyl ether 340 with TBAF. The cis- and tru/u-pyranopyran systems 341 and 342 can be prepared selectively from the trans- and c/.y-epoxides 340, respectively. The reaction is applicable to the preparation of 1,2-diol systems[209]. The method is useful for the enantioselective synthesis of the AB ring fragment of gambier-toxin[210]. Similarly, tributyltin alkoxides as nucleophiles are used for the preparation of allyl alkyl ethers[211]. 

Phenylthio-l-trimethylsilylalkanes are easily prepared by the alkylation of (phenylthioXtrimethylsilyl)mcthane as shown in Scheme 10 [40], The treatment of (phenylthio)(trimethylsilyl)methane with butyllithium/tetramethylethylene-diamine (TMEDA) in hexane followed by the addition of alkyl halides or epoxides produces alkylation products which can be oxidized electrochemically to yield the acetals. Since acetals are readily hydrolyzed to aldehydes, (phenylthioXtrimethylsilyl)methane provides a synthon of the formyl anion. This is an alternative to the oxidative transformation of a-thiosilanes to aldehydes via Sila-Pummerer rearrangement under application of MCPBA as oxidant [40, 41]. 

It is prepared by dropwise addition of 70% H202 to a solution of benzoic acid dissolved in methane solphonic acid and keeping the temperature around 25-30°. After the addition the solution is cooled to 15°, diluted with ice and cold saturated (NH4)2S04 solution to decrease the solubility. It is finally extracted with benzene. The solution is directly used for epoxidation and other reactions. 

This enzyme [EC 1.14.13.25] catalyzes the reaction of methane with NAD(P)H and dioxygen to produce methanol, NAD(P), and water. This enzyme is reported to exhibit a broad specificity. Many alkanes can be hydrox-ylated and alkenes are converted into the corresponding epoxides. Carbon monoxide is oxidized to carbon dioxide, ammonia is oxidized to hydroxylamine, and some aromatic compounds and cyclic alkanes can also be hy-droxylated, albeit not as efficiently. 

However, this process requires a reaction time of 2 days and is inapplicable to unsymmetrical couplings (two different epoxides). As the study described in equation 24 revealed a dramatic solvent effect on similar Brook isomerizations in the adduct of lithio dihalo(triaIkylsilyl)methanes with epoxides (isomerization did not occur following metalation and initial alkylation in THF but proceeded readily upon addition of HMPA), the effect of HMPA for promoting the Brook isomerization was studied once the first alkylation was complete (equation 28) . ... 

While it is well established that HO—ONO can be involved in such two-electron processes as alkene epoxidation and the oxidation of amines, sulfides and phosphines, the controversy remains concerning the mechanism of HO-ONO oxidation of saturated hydrocarbons. Rank and coworkers advanced the hypothesis that the reactive species in hydrocarbon oxidations by peroxynitrous acid, and in lipid peroxidation in the presence of air, is the discrete hydroxyl radical formed in the homolysis of HO—ONO. The HO—ONO oxidation of methane (equation 7) on the restricted surface with the B3LYP and QCISD methods gave about the same activation energy (31 3 kcalmol" ) irrespective of basis set size . ... 

When an optically active epoxide is treated with bis(iodozincio)methane 3, the homoal-lylic alcohol is obtained with a slight loss of enantiomeric purity (equation 51). The absolute configuration of the product showed that the migrating hydroxymethyl group comes from the front side of the — group. The migration occurs with retention of configuration74-76. 

Shinohara et al. (3) prepared epoxy resin compositions, (IV). by epoxidizing 3,3 5,5 -tetramethyl-4,4 -dihydroxyldiphenyl methane and using these... 

Several extensions of these reactions are possible with respect to the electrophilic reagent as well as to the structure of the adduct. Thus functionalized alkyl groups, such as 2-hydroxyethyl and 2-hydroxy-2-phenylethyl, can be introduced into the pyridine ring at the position by treating l-lithio-2-phenyI-l,2-dihydropyridine with ethylene epoxide and styrene epoxide, respectively.144 When polyhalides such as CF3I are used, bis-(substituted-pyridyl)methanes and the dimeric substituted dipyridyls are obtained along with other products.144... 

With Dithiane. Dithiane is one of the most popular functionalized carbanion used for the ring opening of epoxides. This reaction has been studied by different groups [31,56], The anion of bis(phenylthio)methane has been successfully used for the opening of epoxides derived from furanose [56]. This method is an excellent way to prepare formyl derivatives that are suitable for chain extension by olefination. Alternatively formyl derivatives can be reduced to hydroxymethyl derivatives. A recent application of epoxide 33... 

However, attempts to develop similar selective catalysts failed in the case of reactions that require one oxygen atom, like the oxidation of methane, ethane and other alkanes to alcohols, aromatic compounds to phenols, alkenes to epoxides, and many others. These mechanistically simple reactions assume one difficult condition the presence of active sites that upon obtaining two atoms from gas-phase 02 can transfer only one of them to the molecule to be oxidized, reserving the second atom for the next catalytic cycle with another molecule. This problem remains a hard challenge for chemical catalysis. 

Since H202 is easier to handle than 02, we will focus on the use of the former. Many metals can be used for this transformation [50]. Among them, iron compounds are of interest as mimics of naturally occurring non-heme catalysts such as methane monooxygenase (MMO) [51a] or the non-heme anti-tumor drug bleomycin [51b]. Epoxidation catalysts should meet several requirements in order to be suitable for this transformation [50]. Most importantly they must activate the oxidant without formation of radicals as this would lead to Fenton-type chemistry and catalyst decomposition. Instead, heterolytic cleavage of the 0—0 bond is desired. In some cases, alkene oxidation furnishes not only epoxides but also diols. The latter transformation will be the topic of the following section. 

Diederich et al. had postulated that the highly reactive iron-oxo species, arising from oxygen transfer from the oxidant to the Fem site [87], should be greatly stabilised by enclosure within a dendritic superstructure. The catalytic potential of the dendrimers 6 a-c was determined in the epoxidation of alkenes [83 a, 88] (1-octene and cyclooctene) and the oxidation of sulphides [83 a] ((methylsulphanyl)benzene and diphenyl sulphide) to sulphoxides - in dichloro-methane with iodosylbenzene as oxidising agent. Compared to the known metal-porphyrin catalysts, 6a-c exhibit only low TON (7 and 28, respectively, for... 

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