Phosphonium salts, conversion from alcohols

Before the TPS ether is cleaved with TBAF, secondary alcohol 7 has to be protected as methyl ether. TBAF is a reagent to cleave every silyl ether. Most other functional groups are not affected (see Chapter 2). In the next two steps the conversion of alcohol 33 into mesylate 34, which is a good leaving group, and then into iodide 35 in a Finkelstein type reaction occurs. Acetone is the solvent of choice, because Nal is better soluble in it than NaOMs and consequently reaction equilibrium is forced to the product side. Direct transformation from an alcohol to an iodide is possible with PPha and I2 in an Appel-like reaction, but in some cases this reaction fails. Final procedure is the generation of phosphonium salt 8. 

The same year, Gerlach described a synthesis of optically active 1 from (/ )- ,3-butanediol (7) (Scheme 1.2). The diastereomeric esters produced from (-) camphorsulfonyl chloride and racemic 1,3-butanediol were fractionally recrystallized and then hydrolized to afford enantiomerically pure 7. Tosylation of the primary alcohol, displacement with sodium iodide, and conversion to the phosphonium salt 8 proceeded in 58% yield. Methyl-8-oxo-octanoate (10), the ozonolysis product of the enol ether of cyclooctanone (9), was subjected to Wittig condensation with the dilithio anion of 8 to give 11 as a mixture of olefin isomers in 32% yield. The ratio, initially 68 32 (E-.Z), was easily enriched further to 83 17 (E Z) by photolysis in the presence of diphenyl disulfide. The synthesis was then completed by hydrolysis of the ester to the seco acid, conversion to the 2-thiopyridyl ester, and silver-mediated ring closure to afford 1 (70%). Gerlach s synthesis, while producing the optically active natural product, still did not address the problem posed by the olefin geometry. 

---