Oxygen atom transfer epoxidation

N—Fe(IV)Por complexes. Oxo iron(IV) porphyrin cation radical complexes, [O—Fe(IV)Por ], are important intermediates in oxygen atom transfer reactions. Compound I of the enzymes catalase and peroxidase have this formulation, as does the active intermediate in the catalytic cycle of cytochrome P Q. Similar intermediates are invoked in the extensively investigated hydroxylations and epoxidations of hydrocarbon substrates cataly2ed by iron porphyrins in the presence of such oxidizing agents as iodosylbenzene, NaOCl, peroxides, and air. 

The organic substrates in Chart 8 can be divided into two main categories in which (i) the oxidation of olefins, sulfides, and selenides involves oxygen atom transfer to yield epoxides, sulfoxides, and selenoxides, respectively, whereas (ii) the oxidation of hydroquinones and quinone dioximes formally involves loss of two electrons and two protons to yield quinones and dinitrosobenzenes, respectively. In order to provide a unifying mechanistic theme for the seemingly disparate transformations in Chart 8, we note that nitrogen dioxide exists in equilibrium with its dimeric forms, namely, the predominant N—N bonded dimer 02N—N02 and the minor N—O bonded isomer ONO—N02 (equation 88). 

The oxidation of olefins,251 sulfides,252 and selenides253 (denoted as D) involves oxygen-atom transfer from nitrogen dioxide to yield epoxides, sulfoxides, and... 

The epoxidation of electron-deficient alkenes, particularly a,P-unsaturated carbonyl compounds, continues to generate much activity in the literature, and this has been the subject of a recent concise review <00CC1215>. Additional current contributions in this area include a novel epoxidation of enones via direct oxygen atom transfer from hypervalent oxido-).3-iodanes (38), a process which proceeds in fair to good yields and with complete retention of... 

Mechanistically, the epoxidation appears to proceed via oxygen-atom transfer from the high-valent oxometallo intermediate (A) to organic substrates. 

Peroxynitrous acid, which has an estimated lifetime of 1-3 s at neutral pH, has been studied through ab initio calculations that suggest that peroxynitrous acid, per-oxyformic acid, and dimethyldioxirane have, despite diverse 0—0 bond energies, similar activation energies for oxygen-atom transfer." The transition-state structures for the epoxidation of ethene and propene with peroxynitrous acid are symmetrical with equal or almost equal bond distances between the spiro oxygen and the carbons of the double bond. 

Two extreme epoxidation modes, spiro and planar, are shown in Fig. 9 [33, 34, 53, 54, 76-85]. Baumstark and coworkers had observed that the epoxidation of cis-hexene of dimethyldioxirane was seven to nine times faster than the corresponding epoxidation of tran.y-hexene [79, 80]. The relative rates of the epoxidation of cisitrans olefins suggest that spiro transition state is favored over planar. In spiro transition states, the steric interaction for cw-olefm is smaller than the steric interaction for fran -olefm. In planar transition states, similar steric interactions would be expected for both cis- and trans-olefms. Computational studies also showed that the spiro transition state is the optimal transition state for oxygen atom transfer from dimethyldioxirane to ethylene, presumably due to the stabilizing interactions... 

Dimesityldioxirane, a crystalline derivative, has been isolated by Sander and colleagues and subjected to X-ray analysis. The microwave and X-ray data both suggest that dioxiranes have an atypically long 0—0 bond in excess of 1.5 A. Those factors that determine the stability of dioxiranes are not yet completely understood but what is known today will be addressed in this review. A series of achiral, and more recently chiral oxygen atom transfer reagents, have been adapted to very selective applications in the preparation of complex epoxides and related products of oxidation. A detailed history and survey of the rather remarkable evolution of dioxirane chemistry and their numerous synthetic applications is presented in Chapter 14 of this volume by Adam and Cong-Gui Zhao. Our objective in this part of the review is to first provide a detailed theoretical description of the electronic nature of dioxiranes and then to describe the nuances of the mechanism of oxygen atom transfer to a variety of nucleophilic substrates. 

One of the more intriguing features of peracid epoxidation is that the strength of the 0—0 bond has little impact on the rate of oxygen atom transfer. For example, peroxyacetic acid and peroxytrilluoroacetic acid have nearly identical 0—0 BDE (G2MP2, AH° =... 

We point out that the mechanism sketched in path A of Scheme 11 is in agreement with the kinetic and spectroscopic data collected from several research groups. On the other hand, a series of contradictions was encountered in fitting the experimental data into the mechanism proposed in path B. Furthermore, several other papers have appeared in the last decade, based on both experimental results and theoretical calculations, supporting an epoxidation mechanism involving a direct oxygen atom transfer to olefins. For selected examples, see References 34, 145-155. 

The formation of methylperoxy intermediates—i.e., the product of a formal insertion of O2 into the metal-methyl bond—was substantiated by the observation of epoxidation of allylic alkoxides (Scheme 6), in analogy to the proposed mechanism for the Sharpless epoxidation utilizing tert-butylhydroperoxide (TBHP). A similar oxygen atom transfer from a coordinated alkylperoxide to olefin was also postulated for the epoxidation of olefins with TBHP catalyzed by Cp Mo(0)2Cl [31]. The use of organomolybdenum oxides in olefin epoxidafion cafalysis (albeit not with O2) has recently been reviewed [32]. 

---