Other Alkene Oxidations

This reaction and the chemistry of epoxides are detailed in Chapter 8. 

Like alkanes (and all other hydrocarbons), alkenes can be used as fuels. Complete combustion gives carbon dioxide and water. 

Copyri 2010 Ceng Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, seamed, cr dqilic ed, in le or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party cortot be suppressed fixm the eBook and/or eChapterfs). 

Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect die overall leaniing cqiedence CmgageLeamii reseives the right to remove additional coitent rt airtime if subsequeid rights restiictions require it 

---

Solutions of nitric acid in chlorinated solvents can add to some alkenes to give nitrate esters. Some tertiary nitrate esters can be prepared in this way isobutylene (49) reacts with fuming nitric acid of 98.6 % concentration in methylene chloride to give ferf-butyl nitrate (50). However, the products obtained depend on both the substrate and the reaction conditions /3-nitro-nitrate esters, vic-dinitrate esters, /3-nitroalcohols and nitroalkenes have been reported as products with other alkenes. Oxidation products like carboxylic acids are also common, especially at elevated temperatures and in the presence of oxygen. The reaction of alkenes with fuming nitric acid is an important route to unsaturated nitrosteroids, which assumedly arise from the dehydration of /3-nitroalcohols or the elimination of nitric acid from /3-nitro-nitrate... 

Other Alkene Oxidations Not Involving Cleavage of the C=C Bond... 

In close analogy with the osmylation reaction, kinetic data are consistent with a mechanism involving initial reagent-substrate interaction to form a charge-transfer complex with subsequent breakdown via oxametallacyclobutane 1 to the metastable cyclic manganate(V) 2. This diester is believed to lead to the desired diol as well as to other alkene oxidation products. 

Three oxidative reactions of benzene with Pd(OAc)2 via reactive rr-aryl-Pd complexes are known. The insertion of alkenes and elimination afford arylalk-enes. The oxidative functionalization of alkenes with aromatics is treated in Section 2.8. Two other reactions, oxidative homocoupling[324,325] and the acetoxylation[326], are treated in this section. The palladation of aromatic compounds is possible only with Pd(OAc)2. No reaction takes place with PdCl2. 

Uses. Magnesium alkyls are used as polymerization catalysts for alpha-alkenes and dienes, such as the polymerization of ethylene (qv), and in combination with aluminum alkyls and the transition-metal haUdes (16—18). Magnesium alkyls have been used in conjunction with other compounds in the polymerization of alkene oxides, alkene sulfides, acrylonitrile (qv), and polar vinyl monomers (19—22). Magnesium alkyls can be used as a Hquid detergents (23). Also, magnesium alkyls have been used as fuel additives and for the suppression of soot in combustion of residual furnace oil (24). 

Other non-oxidative procedures have also been used to deaminate aziridines. For example, aziridines react with carbenes to yield ylides which subsequently decompose to the alkene. Dichlorocarbene and ethoxycarbonylcarbene have served as the divalent carbon source. The former gives dichioroisocyanides, e.g. (281), as by-products (72TL3827) and the latter yields imines (72TL4659). This procedure has also been applied to aziridines unsubstituted on the nitrogen atom although the decomposition step, in this case, is not totally stereospecific (72TL3827). 

Compounds lb and 2b were the Urst fluorinated ligands tested in Mn-catalyzed alkene epoxidation [5,6]. The biphasic Uquid system perfluorooc-tane/dichloromethane led to excellent activity and enantioselectivity (90% ee) in the epoxidation of indene with oxygen and pivalaldehyde (Scheme 1, Table 1). In addition, the fluorous solution of the catalyst was reused once and showed the same activity and selectivity. This represents a considerable improvement over the behavior in the homogeneous phase, where the used catalyst was bleached and reuse was impossible. Unfortunately, indene was the only suitable substrate for this system, which failed to epoxidize other alkenes (such as styrene or 1,2-dihydronaphthalene) with high enantioselectivity. The system was also strongly dependent on the oxidant and only 71% ee was obtained in the epoxidation of indene with mCPBA at - 50 °C. 

Wilkinson s catalyst has also been utilized for the hydroboration of other alkenes. Sulfone derivatives of allyl alcohol can be hydroborated with HBcat and subsequently oxidized to give the secondary rather than primary alcohol. This reactivity proves to be independent of substituents on the sulfur atom.36 Similarly, thioalkenes undergo anti-Markovnikoff addition to afford a-thioboronate esters.37 The benefits of metal-catalyzed reactions come to the fore in the hydroboration of bromoalkenes (higher yields, shorter reaction times), although the benefits were less clear for the corresponding chloroalkenes (Table 3).38,39 Dienes can be hydroborated using both rhodium and palladium catalysts [Pd(PPh3)4] reacts readily with 1,3-dienes, but cyclic dienes are more active towards [Rh4(CO)i2].40... 

Asymmetric induction has also been achieved in the cyclization of aliphatic alcohol substrates where the catalyst derived from a spirocyclic ligand differentiates enantiotopic alcohols and alkenes (Equation (114)).416 The catalyst system derived from Pd(TFA)2 and (—)-sparteine has recently been reported for a similar cyclization process (Equation (115)).417 In contrast to the previous cases, molecular oxygen was used as the stoichiometric oxidant, thereby eliminating the reliance on other co-oxidants such as GuCl or/>-benzoquinone. Additional aerobic Wacker-type cyclizations have also been reported employing a Pd(n) system supported by A-heterocyclic carbene (NHC) ligands.401,418... 

On the other hand, in cyclic ethers (alkene oxides, oxetans, tetrahydrofuran) and formals the reaction site is a carbon-oxygen bond, the oxygen atom is the most basic point, and, hence, cationic polymerization is possible. The same considerations apply to the polymerization of lactones Cherdron, Ohse and Korte showed that with very pure monomers polyesters of high molecular weight could be obtained with various cationic catalysts and syncatalysts, and proposed a very reasonable mechanism involving acyl fission of the ring [89]. 

Although there are other convenient procedures for the conversion of sulphides into sulphoxides and sulphones, the phase-transfer catalysed reaction using Oxone has the advantage that the oxidation can be conducted in the presence of other readily oxidized groups, such as amines, alkenes, and hydroxyl groups, and acid-labile groups, such as esters and carbamates [6, 7], Hydrolysis of very acid-labile groups, such as ketals, can result in production of the keto sulphone. 

The data in Table 10.1 suggest that the reactivity of epoxide hydrolase toward alkene oxides is highly variable and appears to depend, among other things, on the size of the substrate (compare epoxybutane to epoxyoctane), steric features (compare epoxyoctane to cycloalkene oxides), and electronic factors (see the chlorinated epoxides). In fact, comprehensive structure-metabolism relationships have not been reported for substrates of EH, in contrast to some narrow relationships that are valid for closely related series of substrates. A group of arene oxides, along with two alkene oxides to be discussed below (epoxyoctane and styrene oxide), are compared as substrates of human liver EH in Table 10.2 [119]. Clearly, the two alkene oxides are among the better substrates for the human enzyme, as they are for the rat enzyme (Table 10.1). 

In addition to the unfunctionalized alkene epoxides discussed in the previous subsection, various other types of epoxides exist that are also derived from unconjugated alkenes but that share two additional features, i. e., being characterized by the presence of one or more functional group(s) and having biological significance. Thus, the present subsection examines epoxy alcohols, epoxy fatty acids, allylbenzenes 2, 3 -oxides, as well as alkene oxide metabolites of a few selected drugs. 

Not unexpectedly, cycloalkene oxides are equally important as alkene oxides in medicinal chemistry and drug metabolism, as illustrated below with a few selected examples. Other compounds of interest that will not be discussed here include epoxytetrahydrocannabinols and endogenous 16,17-ep-oxy steroids. 

A new stereoselective epoxidation catalyst based on a novel chiral sulfonato-salen manganese(III) complex intercalated in Zn/Al LDH was used successfully by Bhattacharjee et al. [125]. The catalyst gave high conversion, selectivity, and enantiomeric excess in the oxidation of (i )-limonene using elevated pressures of molecular oxygen. Details of the catalytic activities with other alkenes using both molecular oxygen and other oxidants have also been reported [126]. 

Silylformylation, defined as the addition of RsSi- and -CHO across various types of bonds using a silane R3SiH, CO, and a transition metal catalyst, was discovered by Murai and co-workers, who developed the Co2(CO)8-catalyzed silylformylation of aldehydes, epoxides, and cyclic ethers [26]. More recently, as described in detail in Section 5.3.1, below, alkynes and alkenes have been successfully developed as silylformylation substrates. These reactions represent a powerful variation on hydroformylation, in that a C-Si bond is produced instead of a C-H bond. Given that C-Si groups are subject to, among other reactions, oxidation to C-OH groups, silylformylation could represent an oxidative carbonylation of the type described in Scheme 5.1. 

Abstract This chapter covers one of the most important areas of Ru-catalysed oxidative chemistry. First, alkene oxidations are covered in which the double bond is not cleaved (3.1) epoxidation, cis-dihydroxylation, ketohydroxylation and miscellaneous non-cleavage reactions follow. The second section (3.2) concerns reactions in which C=C bond cleavage does occur (oxidation of alkenes to aldehydes, ketones or carboxylic acids), followed by a short survey of other alkene cleavage oxidations. Section 3.3 covers arene oxidations, and finally, in section 3.4, the corresponding topics for aUcyne oxidations are considered, most being cleavage reactions. 

The oxidation of various other alkenes using the optimal heterogeneous system (10% PEO-10% PPO) was compared to a typical homogeneous reaction using MeOH as solvent (data reported in Table 13). Compared to the homogeneous standard, the polyether tethered-silica-encapsulated catalysts show somewhat lower activity but much better selectivity. 

Other nitrile oxide cycloadditions have been reported including the addition of benzonitrile oxide to alkenes catalysed by a chiral vinyl dioxazaboiodne catalyst (the ee s ate moderate) <98TL8513> and the reaction ofi -phenylpyrazolylnitiile oxide with Ceo <99TL489>. ... 

The development of smart catalysts is a relatively new field of investigation. One class of smart catalysts is based on homogeneous rhodium-based poly(alkene oxide)s, in particular those with a poly(ethylene oxide) backbone. Traditionally chemical-catalyzed reactions proceed in a manner in which the catalysts becomes more soluble and active as the temperature is raised. This can lead to exothermal runaways, thus, posing both safety and yield problems. These smart catalysts behave differently. As the temperature increases, they become less soluble, thus, precipitating out of solution and inactive. As the reaction mixture cools down, a smart catalysts redissolves and becomes active again (19). Other smart catalysts are being developed that dissociates at high temperatures (less active) and recombines at low temperatures (more active) (36). 

A surprisingly different oxidation of alkenes was found to occur in the presence of Mn(TPP)Cl catalyst and [NBu4][BH4] coreducing agent.482 Except for cyclohexene (transformed into cyclohex-en-3-ol and cyclohexanol), the other alkenes, viz. cyclooctene, styrene and 1-octene, were transformed into the corresponding ketone and the ensuing alcohol hydrogenation product (equation 210). 

---