Osmium tetroxide amine oxides

The oxidation of silyl enol ethers with the osmium tetroxide-amine oxide combination also leads to a-hydroxyketones in generally good yields.147... 

The reagent is toxic and expensive but these disadvantages are minimized by methods that use only a catalytic amount of osmium tetroxide. A very useful procedure involves an amine oxide such as morpholine-A-oxide as the stoichiometric oxidant.41... 

A very effective way of carrying out syn-dihydroxylation of alkenes is by using an osmium tetroxide-tertiary amine N-oxide system. This dihydroxylation is usually carried out in aqueous acetone in either one-or two-phase systems, but other solvents may be required to overcome problems of substrate solubility.61... 

In summary, the reaction of osmium tetroxide with alkenes is a reliable and selective transformation. Chiral diamines and cinchona alkakoid are most frequently used as chiral auxiliaries. Complexes derived from osmium tetroxide with diamines do not undergo catalytic turnover, whereas dihydroquinidine and dihydroquinine derivatives have been found to be very effective catalysts for the oxidation of a variety of alkenes. OsC>4 can be used catalytically in the presence of a secondary oxygen donor (e.g., H202, TBHP, A -methylmorpholine-/V-oxide, sodium periodate, 02, sodium hypochlorite, potassium ferricyanide). Furthermore, a remarkable rate enhancement occurs with the addition of a nucleophilic ligand such as pyridine or a tertiary amine. Table 4-11 lists the preferred chiral ligands for the dihydroxylation of a variety of olefins.61 Table 4-12 lists the recommended ligands for each class of olefins. 

Miscellaneous. Aside from the oxidation chemistry described, only a few catalytic applications are reported, including hydrogenation of olefins (114,115), a, [3-unsaturated carbonyl compounds (116), and carbon monoxide (117) and the water gas shift reaction (118). This is so owing to the kinetic inertness of osmium complexes. A 1% by weight osmium tetroxide solution is used as a biological stain, particulady for preparation of samples for electron microscopy. In the presence of pyridine or other heterocyclic amines it is used as a selective reagent for single-stranded or open-form B-DNA (119) (see Nucleic acids). Osmium tetroxide has also been used as an indicator for unsaturated fats in animal tissue. Osmium tetroxide has seen limited if controversial use in the treatment of arthritis (120,121). 

Inclusion in the reaction of a cooxidant serves to return the osmium to the osmium tetroxide level of oxidation and allows for the use of osmium in catalytic amounts. Various cooxidants have been used for this purpose historically, the application of sodium or potassium chlorate in this regard was first reported by Hofmann [7]. Milas and co-workers [8,9] introduced the use of hydrogen peroxide in f-butyl alcohol as an alternative to the metal chlorates. Although catalytic cis dihydroxylation by using perchlorates or hydrogen peroxide usually gives good yields of diols, it is difficult to avoid overoxidation, which with some types of olefins becomes a serious limitation to the method. Superior cooxidants that minimize overoxidation are alkaline t-butylhydroperoxide, introduced by Sharpless and Akashi [10], and tertiary amine oxides such as A - rn e t h y I rn o r p h o I i n e - A - o x i d e (NMO), introduced by VanRheenen, Kelly, and Cha (the Upjohn process) [11], A new, important addition to this list of cooxidants is potassium ferricyanide, introduced by Minato, Yamamoto, and Tsuji in 1990 [12]. 

Lithium aluminium hydride reduction of 235 followed by mesylation afforded 236. The latter was oxidized with osmium tetroxide and sodium metaperiodate to yield the cyclobutanone 237. Treatment of 237 with acid afforded in 48% yield the ketoacid (238), which was esterified with diazomethane to 239. The latter was converted to the ketal 240 by treatment with ethylene glycol and /7-toluenesulfonic acid. Compound 240 was reduced with lithium aluminium hydride to the alcohol 241. This alcohol had been synthesized previously by Nagata and co-workers (164) by an entirely different route. The azide 242 was prepared in 80% yield by mesylation of 241 and treatment of the product with sodium azide. Lithium aluminium hydride reduction of 242 gave the primary amine, which was converted to the urethane 243 by treatment with ethyl chloroformate. The ketal group of 243 was removed by acidic hydrolysis and the resulting ketone was nitro-sated with N204 and sodium acetate. Decomposition of the nitrosourethane with sodium ethoxide in refluxing ethanol afforded the ketone 244 in 65% yield. The latter had been also synthesized previously by Japanese chemists (165). The ketone 244 was converted to the ketal 246 and the latter to 247... 

Osmium tetroxide (0s04, sometimes called osmic acid) reacts with alkenes in a concerted step to form a cyclic osmate ester. Oxidizing agents such as hydrogen peroxide (H202) or tertiary amine oxides (R3N+—O-) are used to hydrolyze the osmate ester and reoxidize osmium to osmium tetroxide. The regenerated osmium tetroxide catalyst continues to hydroxylate more molecules of the alkene. 

Permanganate oxidation of 1,5-dienes to prepare f r-2,5-disubstituted tetrahydrofurans is a well-known procedure (Equation 80). The introduction of asymmetric oxidation methodology has revived interest in this area. Sharpless-Katsuki epoxidation has found widespread application in the catalytic enantioselective synthesis of optically active tetrahydrofurans and the desymmetrization of w ro-tetrahydrofurans <2001COR663>. A general stereoselective route for the synthesis of f-tetrahydrofurans from 1,5-dienes has been developed which uses catalytic amounts of osmium tetroxide and trimethyl amine oxide as a stoichiometric oxidant in the presence of camphorsulfonic acid <2003AGE948>. 

The essential components of the catalyst for the asymmetric dihydroxylation process are osmium tetroxide (OSO4) and an ester of one or the other of the pseudoenantiomeiic cinchona alkaloids dihydro-quinidine (DH( D) and dihydroquinine (DHQ). An amine oxide, generally N-methylmorpholine N-oxide, serves as the oxidant for foe reaction. When an alkenic substrate is added very slowly to a... 

The reaction, usually carried out in aqueous acetone and with an amine oxide as the oxidant RO, is catalyzed by osmium tetroxide, activated by an alkaloid ligand, L. To explain the higher enantio-selectivity achieved at lower olefin concentrations, a network with two cycles having a common member has been proposed [63,64] ... 

Oxidative cleavage of the double bond of 95 with sodium periodate and osmium tetroxide followed by reductive amination of the resulting aldehyde with methylamine hydrochloride and sodium cyanoborohydride... 

Reductive cyclization has been used in a novel, recent synthesis of the alkaloids ( )-isoretronecanol (22) and ( )-trachelanthamidine (23) by Borch and Ho. Condensation of the dianion derived from methyl acetoacetate with Z-l,4-dichlorobut-2-ene, followed by cyclization with sodium meth-oxide yielded the cycloheptenone ester intermediate (32) (Scheme 2). Reductive amination of this ketoester with sodium cyanoborohydride and ammonium nitrate gave a mixture of the diastereoisomeric aminoesters 33 and 34. Oxidation with osmium tetroxide and periodate, followed by reductive cyclization, again using sodium cyanoborohydride, gave the two pyrrolizidine esters 35 and 36 in a ratio of 1 2 [gas-liquid chromatography (GLC) analysis]. The esters were separated by preparative layer chromatography, and lithium aluminum hydride reduction of the individual esters gave the two pyrrolizidine alkaloids 22 and 23. 

Epoxidation and Dihydroxylation of Alkenes There are several ways to convert alkenes to diols. Some of these methods proceed by syn addition, but others lead to anti addition. An important example of syn addition is osmium tetroxide-catalyzed dihydroxylation. This reaction is best carried out using a catalytic amount of OSO4, under conditions where it is reoxidized by a stoichiometric oxidant. Currently, the most common oxidants are f-butyl hydroperoxide, potassium ferricyanide, or an amine oxide. The two oxygens are added from the same side of the double bond. The key step in the reaction mechanism is a [3 + 2] cycloaddition that ensures the syn addition. 

The most popular method for dihydroxylation of alkenes uses osmium tetroxide. This reagent can be used stoichiometrically, although its expense and toxicity have led to the development of catalytic variants. There has been considerable debate over the mechanism of the reaction, which has been postulated to proceed by a direct [3 4-2] cycloaddition, or via a [2-1-2] cycloaddition followed by a rearrangement, to give the intermediate osmate ester.This osmium(Vl) species can be oxidized or reduced and hydrolysed to release the diol product (5.79). The reaction is accelerated by tertiary amine and other bases, such as pyridine, which co-ordinate to the osmium metal. 

---