Pinacol rearrangement unsymmetrical pinacols

The pinacol rearrangement is frequently observed when geminal diols react with acid. The stmcture of the products from unsymmetrical diols can be predicted on the basis of ease of carbocation formation. For example, l,l-diphenyl-2-metltyl-l,2-propanediol rearranges to... 

The limitation of the pinacol is the need for symmetry. This section and the next suggest ways of avoiding this problem. Unsymmetrical epoxides are easily made from alkenes and open with Lewis acid catalysis to give the more substituted of the two possible cations.9 Even such a weak Lewis acid as LiBr opens the epoxide 51 to give the tertiary cation 52 which rearranges by ring contraction to the aldehyde 53. The authors prefer to have the bromocompound 54 as an intermediate.10... 

Fig. 14.15. Regioselectivity of the pinacol rearrangement of an unsymmetrical glycol. The more stable carbenium ion is formed under product development control. Thus, the benz-hydryl cation B is formed here, while the tertiary alkyl cation D is not formed.

The enantioselective total synthesis of the polysubstituted tetrahydrofuran (-)-citreoviral, the unnatural enantiomer, was synthesized by L.E. Overman et al. The Prins-pinacol rearrangement of an allylic 1,2-diol with an unsymmetrical ketone proceeded with high stereoselectivity. The jb/s(trimethylsilyl)-1,2-diol was condensed with the dimethyl acetal of the unsymmetrical ketone in the presence of catalytic amounts of TMSOTf, which yielded a nearly 1 1 mixture of the corresponding acetal and rearrangement product. The acetal was converted to the desired tetrahydrofuran product upon exposure to tin tetrachloride. 

Other unsymmetrical diols, prepared (inefficiently) by the coupling of mixtures of ketones, have been studied. The preferred cation argument is also found to be applicable to mixed medium-ring analogs, i.e. the kinetically favored pinacol rearrangement product is that predicted by consideration of the relative stabilities of the two possible, initially formed, carbocations. ° Earlier work with these compounds may have given misleading results due to product instability. To illustrate, Mundy observed that (24) is converted to (25) as the temperature is increased. 

Although its utility appears to be limited, Mukaiyama et al. found that the chloropyrimidinium fluo-rosulfate (53) can effect both functionalization and subsequent pinacol rearrangement in a one-pot procedure. Unsymmetrical secondary-tertiary diols give the products expected of derivatization at the secondary hydroxy group. A major side reaction is elimination. 

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