Oxidation of Enols

as shown in Equation 8.17,the oxidation of the diarylenol,2-(2, 4, 6 -trimethyl-phenyl)-2-phenyl-l-ethenol with lead tetracetate in warm ethanoic acid (acetic acid, CH3CO2H) yields the corresponding acetoxyaldehyde. 

Problem 8.3. Assume that any ketone can be simply represented by the carbonyl fragment shown in the figure and any enol by the corresponding two carbon fragment with which the former is in equilibrium. Using the bond energies of Chapter 1 (Table 1.1), estimate the relative stabilities (expressed as the difference in energy [A ]) of the two proton tautomers. 

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A retroaldol fragmentation subsequent to the addition of p-TsOI I and a small amount of water to epoxide 206, obtained by oxidation of enol ether 205 with DMDO, resulted in the direct formation of dialdehyde hydrate 208, possessing the spirostructure necessary for the construction of the fused-rings core of ( )-ginkoli-de B. Apparently, hydrolysis of the epoxide produces the hemiacetal 207, which undergoes retroaldol fragmentation of the cydobutane to afford the dialdehyde, which forms the stable hydrate 208 (Scheme 8.52) [94]. 

This oxidative process has been successful with ketones,244 esters,245 and lactones.246 Hydrogen peroxide can also be used as the oxidant, in which case the alcohol is formed directly.247 The mechanisms for the oxidation of enolates by oxygen is a radical chain autoxidation in which the propagation step involves electron transfer from the carbanion to a hydroperoxy radical.248... 

V-Sulfonyloxaziridines are useful reagents for oxidation of enolates to a-hydroxyketones.251 The best results are frequently achieved by using KHMDS to form the enolate. The hydroxylation occurs preferentially from the less hindered enolate face. 

These reagents exhibit good stereoselectivity toward chiral reactants, such as acylox-azolidinones.253 Chiral oxaziridine reagents have been developed that can achieve enantioselective oxidation of enolates to a-hydroxyketones.254... 

The oxidation of enol ethers and their derivatives is a useful method for the synthesis of a-hydroxy-ketones or their derivatives, which are versatile building blocks for organic synthesis. Since enol ethers and esters are types of olefin, some asymmetric epoxidation and dihydroxylation reactions have been applied to their oxidation. 

In 1992, Thornton et al. reported that Mn(salen) (43) catalyzed the asymmetric oxidation of silyl enol ethers to give a mixture of a-siloxy and a-hydroxy ketones, albeit with moderate enantioselectivity (Scheme 28).135 Jacobsen et al. examined the oxidation of enol esters with Mn(salen) (27) and achieved good enantioselectivity.136 Adam et al. also reported that the oxidation of enol ethers with (27) proceeded with moderate to high enantioselectivity.137 Good substrates for these reactions are limited, however, to conjugated enol ethers and esters. Based on the analysis of the stereochemistry,137 enol ethers have been proposed to approach the oxo-Mn center along the N—Mn bond axis (trajectory c, vide supra). 

Another useful method for the asymmetric oxidation of enol derivatives is osmium-mediated dihydroxylation using cinchona alkaloid as the chiral auxiliary. The oxidation of enol ethers and enol silyl ethers proceeds with enantioselectivity as high as that of the corresponding dihydroxylation of olefins (vide infra) (Scheme 30).139 It is noteworthy that the oxidation of E- and Z-enol ethers gives the same product, and the E/Z ratio of the substrates does not strongly affect the... 

Exploitation of time-resolved spectroscopy allows the direct observation of the reactive intermediates (i.e., ion-radical pair) involved in the oxidation of enol silyl ether (ESE) by photoactivated chloranil (3CA ), and their temporal evolution to the enone and adduct in the following way.41c Photoexcitation of chloranil (at lexc = 355 nm) produces excited chloranil triplet (3CA ) which is a powerful electron acceptor (EKelectron-rich enol silyl ethers (Em = 1.0-1.5 V versus SCE) to the ion-radical pair with unit quantum yield, both in dichloromethane and in acetonitrile (equation 20). 

The one-electron oxidation of enol silyl ether donor (as described above) generates a paramagnetic cation radical of greatly enhanced homolytic and electrophilic reactivity. It is the unique dual reactivity of enol silyl ether cation radicals that provides the rich chemistry exploitable for organic synthesis. For example, Snider and coworkers42 showed the facile homolytic capture of the cation radical moiety by a tethered olefinic group in a citronellal derivative to a novel multicyclic derivative from an acyclic precursor (Scheme 8). 

ASYMMETRIC OXIDATION OF ENOLATES FOR THE PREPARATION OF OPTICALLY ACTIVE a-HYDROXYL CARBONYL COMPOUNDS... 

Davis et al.111 developed another method for reagent-controlled asymmetric oxidation of enolates to a-hydroxy carbonyl compounds using (+)-camphor-sulfonyl oxaziridine (147) as the oxidant. This method afforded synthetically useful ee (60-95%) for most carbonyl compounds such as acyclic keto esters, amides, and a-oxo ester enolates (Table 4-20). 

The oxidation of enol ethers at a reticulated vitreous carbon anode [2, 3] (Scheme 1) in a mixture of methanol/THF containing tetraethylammonium tosylate as the electrolyte and 2,6-lutidine as the base leads to substituted tetrahydrofu-ran and tetrahydropyran rings in good yields (51-96%). The major product obtained had a trans-stereochemistry. The cyclization failed to make seven-membered ring products. In order to determine the... 

Surprisingly little preparative work has been done on the anodic oxidation of enols and enolates, although the resulting a-carbonyl radicals are important intermediates in synthetic organic chemistry and biological systems [94]. Due to... 

It is noteworthy that similar products are also obtained from oxidation of enol silyl ethers with two equivalents of tris(p-bromo-phenyl)aminium hexa-chloroantimonate which is known to oxidize electron-rich double bonds to... 

Electrochemical oxidation of enol acetates in an undivided cell gives monomeric products in parallel with the reactions of simple alkenes [47, 48]. Thus, in the reaction of menthol enol acetate 23, the a-acetoxyketone product arises from nucleophilic attack of acetate ion on the radical-cation while the enone product... 

Azide ions are oxidised at low positive potentials and generate azide radicals. Azide radicals will add to an alkene. Thus the anodic oxidation of enol ethers in... 

The oxidation of enol acetates of ketones to a-hydroxy (or a-acetoxy) ketones with the BTSP-FeCls system can also be performed . 

Studies by Laurent et al. have shown the a number of a-fluoroketones can be produced by the electrochemical oxidation of enol esters in Et3N 3HF as electrolyte, following basic work-up [7]. 

The preparation of a-hydroxy carbonyl compounds has been accomplished by the oxidation of enolates using both oxygen6 and MoC PyHMPA-(MoOPh).7 Acyl anion equivalents offer another route to this useful class of compounds. The procedure presented here for the synthesis of 6-hydroxy-3,5,5-tr1methyl-2-cyclohexen-l-one illustrates the use of MCPBA oxidation of an enol silyl ether as a method for obtaining an a-hydroxy enone. The procedure is a scaleup of a published synthesis. ... 

Other methods for a-hydroxy ketone synthesis are addition of O2 to an enolate followed by reduction of the a-hydroperoxy ketone using triethyl phosphite 9 the molybdenum peroxide-pyridine-HMPA oxidation of enolates 10 photooxygenation of enol ethers followed by triphenylphosphine reduction 11 the epoxidation of trimethyl silyl enol ethers by peracid 1 - the oxidation of trimethylsilyl enol ethers by osmium tetroxide in N-methylmorpholine N-... 

Oxidation of enol ethers 9-70 Reaction between aldehydes and aluminum ethoxide (Tishchenko) 9-72 Reaction of acetophenones with AgN03-I2 or other reagents... 

Another reaction in which epoxy ethers have been suggested lo be intermediates is the oxidation of enol ethera with perbenzoic acid. This topic need only be mentioned briefly here, since olefin oxidation with perbenzoie acid has been taken up in greater detail in section III.1..I. 

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