Oppenauer oxidation solvent

Commercially available aluminum isopropoxide, aluminum butoxide and aluminum phenoxide are generally of sufficient purity for use in Oppenauer oxidations provided that these reagents are obtained from a freshly opened container and are freely soluble in the reaction solvent. The reagents may be conveniently stored as 20-40 per cent solutions in anhydrous benzene or toluene. 

The most common catalysts for the Meerwein-Ponndorf-Verley reduction and Oppenauer oxidation are Alm and Lnm isopropoxides, often in combination with 2-propanol as hydride donor and solvent. These alkoxide ligands are readily exchanged under formation of 2-propanol and the metal complexes of the substrate (Scheme 20.5). Therefore, the catalytic species is in fact a mixture of metal alkoxides. 

Some conversion into the anhydrovitamin (112) occurs during silica gel t.l.c. of retinyl palmitate in non-polar solvents. Some new colour reactions of vitamin A are reported to be better than the Carr-Price reaction. The kinetics and mechanism of acid-catalysed isomerization of retinyl acetate into the trans-retro-derivative (113) have been studied. Oppenauer oxidation of kitol (39) results in specific cyclopentanol-cyclopentanone oxidation. ... 

Acetone in conjunction with benzene as a solvent is widely employed. Alternatively cyclohexanone as the hydrogen acceptor, coupled with toluene or xylene as solvent, permits the use of higher reaction temperatures and consequently the reaction time is considerably reduced the excess of cyclohexanone can be easily separated from the reaction product by steam distillation. Usually at least 0.25 mol of aluminium alkoxide per mol of secondary alcohol is employed. However, since an excess of alkoxide has no detrimental effect, the use of 1 to 3 mol of alkoxide is desirable, particularly as water, either present in the reagents or formed during secondary reactions, will remove an equivalent quantity of the reagent. It is recommended that 50 to 200 mol of acetone or 10 to 20 mol of cyclohexanone be employed. Other oxidisable groups are usually unaffected in the Oppenauer oxidation and the reaction has found wide application in the steroid field. 

Acetone, cyclohexanone, benzophenone, cinnamaldehyde, and other carbonyl compounds are hydrogen acceptors in the Oppenauer oxidation of alcohols to carbonyl compounds. The reaction is catalyzed by Raney nickel [961], aluminum alkoxides [962], tris(isopropoxide), or tris(tert-bu-toxide) as bases soluble in organic solvents [963, 964]. These dehydrogenations of alcohols to aldehydes and ketones require refluxing or distillations and have given way to dimethyl sulfoxide oxidations, which take place at room temperature. 

The most important side reaction in heterogeneously catalysed MPVO reactions is the acid-catalysed aldol condensation. Aldol products are usually observed during the Oppenauer oxidation of alcohols, when a surplus of ketone or aldehyde is used as the oxidizing agent and the solvent. The low amount of by-products formed when Ti-beta was used as the catalyst, demonstrates the advantage of the titanium system over Al-beta. This is probably caused by the much weaker Brpnsted acidity of the solvated titanium site [8] compared with the strong H -acidity of the aluminium site in Al-beta. As we have shown earlier Ti-beta has a high tolerance towards water, which further shows the catalytic potential of Ti-beta in MPVO reactions [9]. 

The most extensive application of the Oppenauer oxidation has been in the oxidation of steroid molecules. The most common aluminum catalysts are aluminum /-butoxide, i-propoxide, and phenoxide. While only catalytic amounts of the aluminum alkoxide are theoretically required, in practice at least 0.25 mole of alkoxide per mole of alcohol is used. Acetone and methyl ethyl ketone have proved valuable hydride acceptors due to their accessibility and ease of separation from the product, whereas other ketones such as cyclohexanone and p-benzoquinone are useful alternatives, due to their increased oxidation potentials.4 Although the reaction can be performed neat, an inert solvent to dilute the reaction mixture can reduce the extent of condensation, and, as such, benzene, toluene, and dioxane are commonly utilized. Oxidation of the substrate takes place at temperatures ranging from room temperature to reflux, with reaction times varying from fifteen minutes to twenty-four hours and yields ranging from 37% to 95%. 

The Oppenauer oxidation has been used widely for the oxidation of steroids, particularly for the conversion of allylic secondary hydroxyl groups to a, -unsaturated ketones. p,y-Double bonds generally migrate into conjugation with the carbonyl group under the conditions of the reaction (6.46). One drawback of the method is that the rate of oxidation is rather slow and therefore the mixture is normally heated in a solvent such as toluene, although more-active catalysts that are effective at room temperature have been developed." ... 

It is recovered by redistillation of the fluorene oil fraction, which boils between 290 and 305 °C (or from the distillation fore-runnings in anthracene production), followed by recrystallization, for example, from solvent naphtha. Technical fluorene, 95% pure, is commonly used to produce fluorenone by liquid-phase oxidation with air/oxygen at around 100 °C. Fluorenone can principally be used as a mild oxidant for Oppenauer oxidation, particularly in steroid chemistry. 

One of the chemoselective and mild reactions for the reduction of aldehydes and ketones to primary and secondary alcohols, respectively, is the Meerwein-Ponndorf-Verley (MPV) reduction. The lifeblood reagent in this reaction is aluminum isopropoxide in isopropyl alcohol. In MPV reaction mechanism, after coordination of carbonyl oxygen to the aluminum center, the critical step is the hydride transfer from the a-position of the isopropoxide ligand to the carbonyl carbon atom through a six-mem-bered ring transition state, 37. Then in the next step, an aluminum adduct is formed by the coordination of reduced carbonyl and oxidized alcohol (supplied from the reaction solvent) to aluminum atom. The last step is the exchange of produced alcohol with solvent and detachment of oxidized alcohol which is drastically slow. This requires nearly stoichiometric quantities of aluminum alkoxide as catalyst to prevent reverse Oppenauer oxidation reaction and also to increase the time of reaction to reach complete conversion. Therefore, accelerating this reaction with the use of similar catalysts is always the subject of interest for some researchers. 

Scheme 8.6. A representation of the Oppenauer oxidation. Note that a hydride ion (H ) is transfered between the substrate and solvent, the latter being reduced.

In a different vein and as already pointed out in Chapter 8 (Scheme 8.6), the Meerwein-Ponndorf-Verley reduction is the reverse of the Oppenauer oxidation of aldehydes and ketones, and it is only a change of solvent that dictates whether the reaction that occurs is an oxidation or a reduction.The same catalyst is used. Scheme 9.19 is the reverse of Scheme 8.6. Thus, it is now suggested that the carbonyl oxygen of cyclohexen-3-one displaces an isopropoxy group (2-propoxy [ OCH(CH3)2]) from the catalyst, aluminum isopropoxide [Al(0-iPr)3].Then, after intramolecular hydride transfer, propanone (acetone, CH3COCH3) is lost by displacement from aluminum by the solvent, 2-propanol (isopropanol [CH3CH(OH)CH3]), and finally, the cyclo-... 

Probably related mechanistically to the Oppenauer oxidations are several methods for oxidation that involve transfer of hydrogen to trichloroacetaldehyde. The reaction is mediated by alumina and is carried out by simply mixing the alcohol to be oxidized, the hydrogen acceptor, and alumina in an inert solvent. This reaction is suitable for selective oxidation of secondary alcohols in the presence of primary alcohols (which do not react) and also for the oxidation of compounds containing other easily oxidized functional groups. 

Oppenauer-type oxidation of secondary alcohols can be a convenient procedure for obtaining the corresponding carbonyl compounds. It was found recently [19], that Ir(I)- and Rh(I)-complexes of 2,2 -biquinoline-4,4 -dicarboxylic acid dipotassium salt (BQC) efficiently catalyze the oxidation of secondary alcohols with acetone in water/acetone 2/1 mixtures (Scheme 8.5). The reaction proceeds in the presence of Na2C03 and affords medium to excellent yields of the isolated ketones. The process is much faster in largely aqueous solutions, such as above, than in wet organic solvents in acetone, containing only 0.5 % water, low yields were observed (15 % vs. 76 % in case of cyclohexanol). 

Since these are chemical equilibriiun reactions, by modifying the reaction conditions, i.e., using acetone as solvent instead of isopropanol, the reaction can be reversed, and therefore used for the oxidation (dehydrogenation) of alcohols (Oppenauer-type oxidation) [43]. Moreover, since acetone is the hy-... 

An interesting variation of the chromic acid oxidation of alcohols to aldehydes was discovered by Oppenauer and Oberrauch.411 When dissolved in tert-butyl alcohol and an organic solvent, alcohols are dehydrogenated to aldehydes by tert-butyl chromate in 90% yield. Experimental details are given in Houben-Weyl s reference work.ln... 

The reaction time and concentrations used depend on the reactants. Reaction is usually effected at 60°. Formation of condensation products from the ketones is largely repressed by working in inert solvents such as benzene, dioxan, and toluene. Aluminum isobutoxide, as well as the isopropoxide, has proved its value as metal alkoxide usually it is added to the reaction mixture in the proportion of 0.5 mole per mole of alcohol. Compounds containing nitrogen and halogen can also be oxidized by the Oppenauer method. Dehydrogenation of cholesterol to cholestenone will be described as an example 454... 

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