Mn-salen

A concerted [2 + 2] cycloaddition pathway in which an oxametallocycle intermediate is generated upon reaction of the substrate olefin with the Mn(V)oxo salen complex 8 has also been proposed (Scheme 1.4.5). Indeed, early computational calculations coupled with initial results from radical clock experiments supported the notion.More recently, however, experimental and computational evidence dismissing the oxametallocycle as a viable intermediate have emerged. In addition, epoxidation of highly substituted olefins in the presence of an axial ligand would require a seven-coordinate Mn(salen) intermediate, which, in turn, would incur severe steric interactions. " The presence of an oxametallocycle intermediate would also require an extra bond breaking and bond making step to rationalize the observation of trans-epoxides from dy-olefms (Scheme 1.4.5). 

The Jacobsen-Katsuki epoxidation reaction has found wide synthetic utility in both academia and industrial settings. As described previously, the majority of olefin classes, when conjugated, undergo Mn(salen)-catalyzed epoxidation in good enantioselectivity. In this section, more specific synthetic utilities are presented. 

The first asymmetric Mn(salen)-catalyzed epoxidation of silyl enol ethers was carried out by Reddy and Thornton in 1992. Results from the epoxidation of various silyl enol ethers gave the corresponding keto-alcohols in up to 62% ee Subsequently, Adam and Katsuki " independently optimized the protocol for these substrates yielding products in excellent enantioselectivity. 

Song and Roh investigated the epoxidation of compounds such as 2,2-dimethylchromene with a chiral Mn (salen) complex (Jacobsen catalyst) in a mixture of [BMIM][PFg] and CH2CI2 (1 4 v/v), using NaOCl as the oxidant (Scheme 5.2-12) [62]. 

A breakthrough in the area of asymmetric epoxidation came at the beginning of the 1990s, when the groups of Jacobsen and Katsuki more or less simultaneously discovered that chiral Mn-salen complexes (15) catalyzed the enantioselective formation of epoxides [71, 72, 73], The discovery that simple achiral Mn-salen complexes could be used as catalysts for olefin epoxidation had already been made... 

Figure 6.8 Rationale for enantioselection in Mn-salen epoxida-tion. a) Initially proposed model (the axial ligand L is omitted for clarity), b) Recently proposed model based on calculation.

Entry Mn-salen (amount) Oxidant Additive131 Solvent Temp (°C) Yield (%) Ee (%) Ref. 

Ten years after Sharpless s discovery of the asymmetric epoxidation of allylic alcohols, Jacobsen and Katsuki independently reported asymmetric epoxidations of unfunctionalized olefins by use of chiral Mn-salen catalysts such as 9 (Scheme 9.3) [14, 15]. The reaction works best on (Z)-disubstituted alkenes, although several tri-and tetrasubstituted olefins have been successfully epoxidized [16]. The reaction often requires ligand optimization for each substrate for high enantioselectivity to be achieved. 

Fueled by the success of the Mn (salen) catalysts, new forays have been launched into the realm of hybrid catalyst systems. For example, the Mn-picolinamide-salicylidene complexes (i.e., 13) represent novel oxidation-resistant catalysts which exhibit higher turnover rates than the corresponding Jacobsen-type catalysts. These hybrids are particularly well-suited to the low-cost-but relatively aggressive-oxidant systems, such as bleach. In fact, the epoxidation of trans-P-methylstyrene (14) in the presence of 5 mol% of catalyst 13 and an excess of sodium hypochlorite proceeds with an ee of 53%. Understanding of the mechanistic aspects of these catalysts is complicated by their lack of C2 symmetry. For example, it is not yet clear whether the 5-membered or 6-membered metallocycle plays the decisive role in enantioselectivity however, in any event, the active form is believed to be a manganese 0x0 complex <96TL2725>. 

Only a few years after the development of the homogeneous chiral Mn(salen) complexes by Jacobsen and Katsuki, several research groups began to study different immobiUzation methods in both liquid and soUd phases. Fluorinated organic solvents were the first type of Uquid supports studied for this purpose. The main problem in the appUcation of this methodology is the low solubility of the catalytic complex in the fluorous phase. Several papers were pubUshed by Pozzi and coworkers, who prepared a variety of salen ligands with perfluorinated chains in positions 3 and 5 of the saUcyUdene moiety (Fig. 2). 

Figure 4.6 An enantioselec-live MOF epoxidation catalyst. Zn-(l,4 -biphenyldicarboxylate) sheets in the ab direction are connected by functionalized Mn-salen ligands to form a doubly...

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