Protective groups ethers

In the chemistry of protective groups, ethers and acetals are also often employed as protective groups of phenolic hydroxyl function under highly basic conditions. In practice, the living anionic polymerization of the ether- or acetal-protected monomers Id-lg (Figure 2) was possible under the same conditions in THF at -78 On the other hand, quanti-... 

Six protective groups for alcohols, which may be removed successively and selectively, have been listed by E.J. Corey (1972B). A hypothetical hexahydroxy compound with hydroxy groups 1 to 6 protected as (1) acetate, (2) 2,2,2-trichloroethyl carbonate, (3) benzyl ether, (4) dimethyl-t-butylsilyl ether, (5) 2-tetrahydropyranyl ether, and (6) methyl ether may be unmasked in that order by the reagents (1) KjCO, or NH, in CHjOH, (2) Zn in CHjOH or AcOH, (3) over Pd, (4) F", (5) wet acetic acid, and (6) BBrj. The groups may also be exposed to the same reagents in the order A 5, 2, 1, 3, 6. The (4-methoxyphenyl)methyl group (=MPM = p-methoxybenzyl, PMB) can be oxidized to a benzaldehyde derivative and thereby be removed at room temperature under neutral conditions (Y- Oikawa, 1982 R. Johansson, 1984 T. Fukuyama, 1985). 

Three selective methods to remove protective groups are receiving much attention assisted, electrolytic, and photolytic removal. Four examples illustrate assisted removal of a protective group. A stable allyl group can be converted to a labile vinyl ether group (eq. 4) a /3-haloethoxy (eq. 5) or a /3-silylethoxy (eq. 6) derivative is cleaved by attack at the /3-substituent and a stable o-nitro-phenyl derivative can be reduced to the o-amino compound, which undergoes cleavage by nucleophilic displacement (eq. 7) ° ... 

Ethers are among the most used protective groups in organic synthesis. They vary from the simplest, most robust, methyl ether to the more elaborate, substituted, trityl ethers developed for use in nucleotide synthesis. They are formed and removed under a wide variety of conditions. Some of the ethers that have been used to protect alcohols are included in Reactivity Chart 1. ... 

Me3SiI, CHCI3, 25°, 6 h, 95% yield.A number of methods have been reported in the literature for the in situ formation of Me3Sil since Me3SiI is somewhat sensitive to handle. This reagent also cleaves many other ether-type protective groups, but selectivity can be maintained by control of the reaction conditions and the inherent rate differences between functional groups. 

The introduction of a THP ether onto a chiral molecule results in the formation of diastereomers because of the additional stereogenic center present in the tetrahy-dropyran ring (which can make the interpretation of NMR spectra somewhat troublesome at times). Even so, this is one of the most widely used protective groups employed in chemical synthesis because of its low cost, the ease of its installation, its general stability to most nonacidic reagents, and the ease with which it can be removed. 

Several methoxy-substituted benzyl ethers have been prepared and used as protective groups. Their utility lies in the fact that they are more readily cleaved oxidatively than the unsubStituted benzyl ethers. The table below gives the relative rates of cleavage with dichlorodicyanoquinone (DDQ). ... 

To control the stereochemistry of epoxidation at the 10,11-double bond in intermediates in prostaglandin synthesis, a bulky protective group was used for the C15-OH group. Epoxidation of the tribenzylsilyl ether yielded 88% a-oxide epoxidation of the tri-/ -xylylsilyl ether was less selective. ... 

The ability to convert a protective group to another functional group directly without first performing a deprotection is a potentially valuable transformation. Silyl-protected alcohols have been converted directly to aldehydes, ketones, bro-mides, acetates, and ethers without first liberating the alcohol in a prior deprotection step. 

Historically, simple Vz-alkyl ethers formed from a phenol and a halide or sulfate were cleaved under rather drastic conditions (e.g., refluxing HBr). New ether protective groups have been developed that are removed under much milder conditions (e.g., via nucleophilic displacement, hydrogenolysis of benzyl ethers, and mild acid hydrolysis of acetal-type ethers) that seldom affect other functional groups in a molecule. 

An isopropyl ether was developed as a phenol protective group that would be more stable to Lewis acids than an aryl benzyl ether. The isopropyl group has also been... 

An ether that would not undergo rearrangement to a 3-alkyl derivative during acid-catalyzed removal of — NH protective groups was required to protect the phenol group in tyrosine. Four compounds were investigated (9-cyclohexyl-, (9-isobomyl-, 0-[l-(5-pentamethylcyclopentadienyl)ethyl]-, and O-isopropyltyro-sine. 

Me3SiI, CH3CN, 25-50°, 100% yield. Selective removal of protective groups is possible with this reagent since a carbamate, =NCOOCMe3, is cleaved in 6 min at 25° an aryl benzyl ether is cleaved in 100% yield, with no formation of 3-benzyltyrosine, in 1 h at 50°, at which time a methyl ester begins to be cleaved. 

The carbonyl group forms a number of other very stable derivatives. They are less used as protective groups because of the greater difficulty involved in their removal. Such derivatives include cyanohydrins, hydrazones, imines, oximes, and semicarbazones. Enol ethers are used to protect one carbonyl group in a 1,2- or 1,3-dicarbonyl compound. 

Silyl-derived protective groups are also used to mask the thiol function. A complete compilation is not given here since silyl derivatives are described in the section on alcohol protection. The formation and cleavage of silyl thioethers proceed analogously to simple alcohols. The Si—S bond is weaker than the Si—O bond, and therefore sulfur derivatives are more susceptible to hydrolysis. For the most part silyl ethers are rarely used to protect the thiol function because of their instability. Silyl ethers have been used for in situ protection of the — SH group during amide formation. ... 

Reactivity Chart 1. Protection for the Hydroxyl Group Ethers... 

The principal variations on the normal crown synthesis methods were applied in preparing mixed crowns such as those shown in Eq. (3.55) and in forming isomers of the dibinaphthyl-22-crown-6 systems. The latter has been discussed in Sect. 3.5 (see Eq. 3.21) . The binaphthyl unit was prepared to receive a non-naphthyl unit as shown in Eq. (3.57). Binaphthol was allowed to react with the tetrahydropyranyl ether or 2-chloroethoxyethanol. Cleavage of the THP protecting group followed by tosyla-tion of the free hydroxyl afforded a two-armed binaphthyl unit which could serve as an electrophile in the cyclization with catechol. Obviously, the reaction could be accomplished in the opposite direction, beginning with catechol". ... 

---