Microwave irradiated ring opening

Several recent articles describe the ring-opening of chiral epoxides under microwave irradiation conditions (see also Scheme 6.103). In the context of the preparation of novel /32-adrenoceptor agonists related to formoterol and salmeterol, Fairhurst and a team from Novartis have described the synthesis of chiral ethanolamines by solvent-free microwave-assisted ring-opening of a suitable chiral epoxide precursor with secondary benzylated amines (Scheme 6.129) [262]. At 110 °C, the reaction occurred... 

A rather complex microwave-assisted ring-opening of chiral difluorinated epoxy-cyclooctenones has been studied by Percy and coworkers (Scheme 6.131) [265]. The epoxide resisted conventional hydrolysis, but reacted smoothly in basic aqueous media (ammonia or N-methylimidazole) under microwave irradiation at 100 °C for 10 min to afford unique hemiacetals and hemiaminals in good yields. Other nitrogen nucleophiles, such as sodium azide or imidazole, failed to trigger the reaction. The reaction with sodium hydroxide led to much poorer conversion of the starting material. 

Microwave-assisted ring opening of (R)-styrene oxide by pyrazole and imidazole leads to the corresponding (R)-l-phenyl-2-azolylethanols. With pyrazole, use of microwave irradiation increases both chemo- and regioselectivity compared with the conventional heating [81] (Eq. 27). 

The synthesis of imidazoles is another reaction where the assistance of microwaves has been intensely investigated. Apart from the first synthesis described since 1995 [40-42], recently a combinatorial synthesis of 2,4,5-trisubstituted and 1,2,4,5-tetrasubstituted imidazoles has been described on inorganic solid support imder solvent-free conditions [43]. Different aldehydes and 1,2 dicarbonyl compounds 42 (mainly benzil and analogues) were reacted in the presence of ammonium acetate to give the trisubstituted ring 43. When a primary amine was added to the mixture, the tetrasubstituted imidazoles were obtained (Scheme 13). The reaction was done by adsorption of the reagent on a solid support, such as silica gel, alumina, montmorillonite KIO, bentonite or alumina followed by microwave irradiation for 20 min in an open vial (multimode reactor). The authors observed that when a non-acid support was used, addition of acetic acid was necessary to obtain good yields of the products. 

Dipolar [3 + 2] cycloadditions are one of the most important reactions for the formation of five-membered rings [68]. The 1,3-dipolar cycloaddition reaction is frequently utihzed to obtain highly substituted pyrroHdines starting from imines and alkenes. Imines 98, obtained from a-amino esters and nitroalkenes 99, are mixed together in an open vessel microwave reactor to undergo 1,3-dipolar cycloaddition to produce highly substituted nitroprolines esters 101 (Scheme 35) [69]. Imines derived from a-aminoesters are thermally isomerized by microwave irradiation to azomethine yhdes 100,... 

Alkylations of phenols with epichlorohydrin under PTC conditions and microwave irradiation were described twice in 1998. Subsequently, ring-opening reactions of the epoxide group were also performed using microwaves (Eqs. 20 and 21) [31, 32]. In the first catalytic synthesis of chiral glycerol sulfide ethers was described [31] in the second biologically active amino ethers were prepared [32],... 

Lakner et al. carried out studies on new mesoionic heterocyclic structures <2005TL5325> (Scheme 6). These authors found that although the salt 68 is stable at 100-120 °C (in dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO)) in the presence of various amines, it easily undergoes ring opening upon microwave irradiation under the same reaction conditions to yield amides 69. 

Table 12. Asymmetric ring opening of cyclohexene oxide with anilines catalyzed by complex 73 under microwave irradiation...

Keywords epoxyisophorone, diethyl malonate, epoxide ring-opening, KF-alumi-na, microwave irradiation, isophorone... 

A series of tetrasubstituted thiazole derivatives 28 has been prepared via a multi-component tandem protocol <07T10054>. Reaction of bis(aroylmethyl)sulfides 23 with aryl aldehydes and ammonium acetate in 1 2 1 ratio under solvent-free microwave irradiation affords 28 in good yields. This reaction presumably starts with Knoevenagel condensation of sulfide with 2 equiv. of aryl aldehydes to give 24. Michael addition with ammonia and concomitant cyclocondensation lead to 26. Base-catalyzed ring opening of 26 to 27 and ring... 

Carlos, G.S., Richard, H., and Ulrich, S.S. 2006. Fast and green living cationic ring opening polymerization of 2-ethyl-2-oxazoline in ionic liquids under microwave irradiation. 

Chebanov and co-workers [130] described an efficient synthetic route for the synthesis of some novel derivatives of 5a-hydroxy-4,5,5a,6,7,8-hexahydropyra-zolo[4,3-c]quinolizin-9-ones 94 which is based on a multicomponent condensation of a 5-aminopyrazole with a cyclic 1,3-diketone and an aromatic aldehyde under microwave irradiation. The reaction runs via an unusual base-mediated ring-opening/recyclization of the cyclic 1,3-diketone moiety (Scheme 71)... 

Ring opening of epoxides using selenolates that are generated by other methods, such as reduction with samarium reagents [19], electrochemical reduction [22], reduction with phosphine [25] or reduction with NaBH4 under microwave irradiation [34], have also been reported. 

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