Oxirane from alkene/hydrogen

Usually, various quantities of alkane are found during the hydrogenolyses of oxacycloalkanes. This is especially so for the oxiranes on platinum metals in the presence of hydrogen. These alkanes presumably form from alkenes, which are formed from deoxygenation (Scheme 4.67). 

The most convenient route to lluorinatcd epoxides is the direct epoxidation of alkenes. Since first reports of a general method using alkaline hydrogen peroxide at low temperature,- several alternative synthetic approache.s have been developed. Molecular oxygen under free-radical conditions has been used to oxidize alkenes such as tetrafluoroethene or hexafluoro-propene however, internal epoxides are formed most conveniently using hypochlorites. The products, e. g. oxirane 14 from alkene 13, are usually obtained in high... 

Allylic alcohols may be derived from alkenes by metallation to give the allylpotassium species, followed by treatment with fluorodimethoxyborane. Oxidation of the resultant boronic ester with hydrogen peroxide gives the allylic alcohol (Scheme 15). ° - ° Some allylic rearrangement may be observed for example, metallation of a-pinene with potassium r-butoxide in petroleum ether solution and subsequent boration and oxidation gave myrtenol (42%) and /rons-pinocarveol (1%) (equation 24), while treatment of the allylpotassium with oxirane gave the alkylated prc ucts in a ratio of ca. 2 1. ° ... 

The observed stereochemistry of addition suggests that oxiranes (epoxides) may be intermediates. Oxiranes may, indeed, be isolated from the reaction of certain alkenes with hydrogen peroxide in the presence of sodium tungstate. °... 

The direct oxidation of alkenes to oxirans by hydrogen peroxide is, of course, only possible when a catalyst is used. In the past the main choice of catalyst has been oxides of the metals of Groups 5a, 5b, 6a, or 6b. In 1978, however. Sharpless put the use of arylseleninic acids as catalysts on a firm practical footing.Using the nitrophenylseleninic acids (25 R = H, R = NO2) and (25 R = R = NO2), 95 % preparative yields of cyclo-octene oxide were obtained from the alkene in CH2CI2 with 30% H2O2. 

Fig. 3.8 Photolysis of the ketonyl oxirane 11 led to formation of, amongst other products, phenylketene (isolated as the phenylaeetie aeid). The reaction was rationalized as a Norrish type II process abstraction of a y-hydrogen by a ketone carbonyl group, giving a 1,4-diradical which fragments to an alkene (in this case phenyloxirene) and the enol of a ketone. However, photolysis of 12 gave 13, presumably derived from the oxo carbene, but no 14, which argues against the (pseudo)symmetrical ethylpropyloxirene and suggests that in the diradical bonds a and b cleave simultaneously...

Oxirans.— Epoxides are readily available from the catalytic oxidation of alkenes with 2-hydroperoxyhexafluoropropan-2-ol (HPHI) (1), which itself is easily prepared from hexafluoroacetone hydrate (2) and hydrogen peroxide (Scheme 1). HPHI is claimed to have similarities to the natural flavin hydroperoxides which are implicated in epoxidations and hydroxylations by external flavoprotein mono-oxygenases. Yields are typically in the range 77—92%. 

Oxirans. - The synthesis of l,2-anhydro-3,4-di-0-benzyl-6-deoxy-a-D-glucopyranose and its conformational analysis have been reported. A range of epoxides have been prepared by base treatment of bromohydrins, which were made by reaction of hydrogen bromide with aldonolactones. A one-pot conversion of vicinal diols into epoxides employs halohydrin ester intermediates generated from cyclic orthoacetates and either acetyl bromide or trimethylsilyl chloride. Levoglucosenone has been transformed into l,6 3,4-dianhydro-p-D-talopyranose by way of a trn/w-iodo-acetoxylation of the alkene moiety... 

Oxirans.—A simple four-stage preparation of (5)-propylene oxide from ethyl L-( —)-maleate has been described (Scheme 2). This work is of importance for the synthesis of nonactin carboxylic acid. Another synthesis of optically-active propylene oxide involves the cyclization of OL-propylene chlorohydrin with a variety of bases in the presence of a cobalt complex the highest optical purity was 27%. Wynberg and co-workers have shown that the base-catalysed epoxidation of electron-poor alkenes is subject to catalytic asymmetric induction hydrogen peroxide and t-butyl hydroperoxide were used as oxidants in the presence of quaternary... 

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