Peroxy acids bonds

Epoxidation of alkenes with peroxy acids is a syn addition to the double bond Substituents that are cis to each other in the alkene remain cis in the epoxide substituents that are trans in the alkene remain trans m the epoxide... 

As shown m Table 6 4 electron releasing alkyl groups on the double bond increase the rate of epoxidation This suggests that the peroxy acid acts as an electrophilic reagent toward the alkene... 

Epoxidation (Section 6 18) Peroxy acids transfer oxygen to the double bond of alkenes to yield epoxides The reaction IS a stereospecific syn addition... 

In this example addition to the double bond of an alkene converted an achiral mol ecule to a chiral one The general term for a structural feature the alteration of which introduces a chirality center m a molecule is prochiral A chirality center is introduced when the double bond of propene reacts with a peroxy acid The double bond is a prochi ral structural unit and we speak of the top and bottom faces of the double bond as prochiral faces Because attack at one prochiral face gives the enantiomer of the com pound formed by attack at the other face we classify the relationship between the two faces as enantiotopic... 

The diminished rr electron density m the double bond makes a p unsaturated aide hydes and ketones less reactive than alkenes toward electrophilic addition Electrophilic reagents—bromine and peroxy acids for example—react more slowly with the carbon-carbon double bond of a p unsaturated carbonyl compounds than with simple alkenes... 

Allylic alcohols can be converted to epoxy-alcohols with tert-butylhydroperoxide on molecular sieves, or with peroxy acids. Epoxidation of allylic alcohols can also be done with high enantioselectivity. In the Sharpless asymmetric epoxidation,allylic alcohols are converted to optically active epoxides in better than 90% ee, by treatment with r-BuOOH, titanium tetraisopropoxide and optically active diethyl tartrate. The Ti(OCHMe2)4 and diethyl tartrate can be present in catalytic amounts (15-lOmol %) if molecular sieves are present. Polymer-supported catalysts have also been reported. Since both (-t-) and ( —) diethyl tartrate are readily available, and the reaction is stereospecific, either enantiomer of the product can be prepared. The method has been successful for a wide range of primary allylic alcohols, where the double bond is mono-, di-, tri-, and tetrasubstituted. This procedure, in which an optically active catalyst is used to induce asymmetry, has proved to be one of the most important methods of asymmetric synthesis, and has been used to prepare a large number of optically active natural products and other compounds. The mechanism of the Sharpless epoxidation is believed to involve attack on the substrate by a compound formed from the titanium alkoxide and the diethyl tartrate to produce a complex that also contains the substrate and the r-BuOOH. ... 

The overall transformation is the conversion of the carbon-sulfur bonds bond to a carbon-carbon double bond. The original procedure involved halogenation of a sulfide, followed by oxidation to the sulfone. Recently, the preferred method has reversed the order of the steps. After the oxidation, which is normally done with a peroxy acid, halogenation is done under basic conditions by use CBr2F2 or related polyhalomethanes for the halogen transfer step.92 This method was used, for example, to synthesize 1,8-diphenyl-1,3,5,7-octatetraene. 

The rate of epoxidation of alkenes is increased by alkyl groups and other ERG substituents and the reactivity of the peroxy acids is increased by EWG substituents.72 These structure-reactivity relationships demonstrate that the peroxyacid acts as an electrophile in the reaction. Decreased reactivity is exhibited by double bonds that are conjugated with strongly electron-attracting substituents, and more reactive peroxyacids, such as trifluoroperoxyacetic acid, are required for oxidation of such compounds.73 Electron-poor alkenes can also be epoxidized by alkaline solutions of... 

There have been a number of computational studies of the epoxidation reaction. These studies have generally found that the hydrogen-bonded peroxy acid is approximately perpendicular to the axis of the double bond, giving a spiro structure.75 Figure 12.8 shows TS structures and Ea values based on B3LYP/6-31G computations. The Ea trend is as expected for an electrophilic process OCH3 < CH3 CH = CH2 < H < CN. Similar trends were found in MP4/6-31G and QCISD/6-31G computations. 

Hydroxy172 and amino173 groups favor syn stereoselectivity. This is similar to the substituent effects observed for peroxy acids and suggests that the substituents may stabilize the TS by hydrogen bonding. 

In the field of enzyme catalysis, heme-proteins such as cytochrome P450, for example, exhibit both types of 0-0 bond cleavages in organic hydroperoxides and peroxy acids (178). Heterolytic cleavage of HOOH/ROOH yields H20 or the corresponding alcohol, ROH and a ferryl-oxo intermediate (Scheme 4). Homolytic 0-0 bond cleavage results in the formation of a hydroxyl (HO ) or an alkoxyl (RO ) radical and an iron-bound hydroxyl radical. 

The similarity of the structure of peroxynitrous acid to the simplest peroxy acid, per-oxyformic acid, immediately raised the question as to its relative reactivity as an oxygen atom donor. This became particularly relevant when it was recognized that the 0—0 bond dissociation energy (AG° = 21 kcalmoR ) of HO—ONO was much lower than that of more typical peroxides. Consequently, peroxynitrous acid (HO-ONO) can be both a one- and two-electron oxidant. Since the 0-0 bond in HO-ONO is so labile, its chemistry is also consistent in many cases with that of the free hydroxyl radical. 

Just such an example of a planar TS has been reported recently by Sarzi-Amade and his coworkers " . who managed to locate only a planar-hke TS and a planar TS (the peroxy acid plane contains the C=C bond axis), for anti- and iyw-sesquinorbornenes. They are substrates that, because of steric constraints, cannot easily accommodate spiro-like TSs. These planar TSs are nonconcerted since they are strongly unsymmetrical and only one of the C—O bonds of the oxirane ring is significantly formed. IRC analysis, while confirming that formation of one C—O bond fully precedes that of the other, also suggests that aU this can take place without formation of intermediates, that is, within a nonconcerted one-step process . 

TABLE 11. Calculated activation barriers (AE, kcal mol ), H-bonding energies (lin-bonding. kcal moG ) in the peroxy acid and exothermicities (AEreacdon. kcalmol" ) of the epoxidahon reactions of ii-2-butene with substituted peroxy acids at the B3LYP//B3LYP/6-31+G(d,p) level of theory... 

Ethyl peracetate was the first ester of a peroxy acid, and was characterized by Baeyer and Villiger in 1901. Kinetic studies of perester decomposition were reported by Blomquist and Ferris in 1951, and in 1958 Bartlett and Hiatt proposed that concerted multiple bond scission of peresters could occur when stabilized radicals were formed (equation 46). As noted below (equation 57), polar effects in perester decomposition are also significant. 

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