Epoxide-opening reactions

Several efficient methods for the preparation of amino sugars have been developed57 and the following general methods can be identified nucleophilic displacement reactions, epoxide opening, additions to glycals, reduction of oximes and intramolecular substitutions. 

Ring-Opening Reactions. Epoxide opening takes place at the C-3 position of (1) with a wide variety of nucleophiles, as summarized below. 

Thus epoxides like cyclopropanes have significant angle strain They tend to undergo reactions that open the three membered nng by cleaving one of the carbon-oxygen bonds... 

The most striking chemical property of epoxides is their far greater reactivity toward nude ophilic reagents compared with that of simple ethers Epoxides react rapidly with nude ophiles under conditions in which other ethers are inert This enhanced reactivity results from the angle strain of epoxides Reactions that open the nng relieve this strain... 

HETE was also obtained together with ( )-ll-HETE via the epoxide opening reaction of 11,12-epoxyarachidonic acid (Ref. 4). 

Ester functions are not saponified under these ring opening conditions. However, a trans-a-acetoxy function hinders the epoxide opening reaction and a noticeable decrease in yield is observed in comparison to the cw-a-acetoxy isomer. The ring opening reaction is also dependent on the concentration of sulfuric acid. Polymer formation results when the acid concentration is too low and the reaction is markedly slower with excessive concentrations of acid. A 0.5% (vol./vol.) concentration of acid in DMSO is satisfactory. Ring opening does not occur when ethanol, acetone, or dioxane are used as solvent. 

Diols can be prepared either by direct hydroxylation of an alkene with 0s04 followed by reduction with NaHSOj or by acid-catalyzed hydrolysis of an epoxide (Section 7.8). The 0s04 reaction occurs with syn stereochemistry to give a cis diol, and epoxide opening occurs with anti stereochemistry to give a trans diol. 

The mechanisms of these acid-catalyzed epoxide openings are more complex than they at first appear. They seem to be neither purely SN1 nor SN2 but instead to be midway between the two extremes and to have characteristics of both. Take the reaction of 1,2-epoxy-l-methylcyclohexane with HBr shown in Figure 18.2, for instance. The reaction yields only a single stereoisomer of 2-bromo-2-methyl-cyclohexanol in which the —Br and —OH groups are trans, an S 2-li.ke result caused by backside displacement of the epoxide oxygen. But the fact that Br attacks the more hindered tertiary side of the epoxide rather than the less hindered secondary side is an SN1 -like result in which the more stable, tertiary carbocation is involved. 

Base-catalyzed epoxide opening is a typical S -2 reaction in which attack of the nucleophile takes place at the less hindered epoxide carbon. For example, 1,2-epoxypropane reacts with ethoxide ion exclusively at the less highly substituted, primary, carbon to give l-ethoxy-2-propanol. 

Scheme 5. Payne rearrangement/epoxide opening reaction hydroxide nucleophile.

The reversibility of halohydrin dehalogenase-catalyzed reactions has been used for the regioselective epoxide-opening with nonnatural nucleophiles (an example is given in Scheme 10.34) [133]. The stereoselectivity of the enzyme results in the resolution of the racemic substrate. At the same time, the regioselectivity imposed by the active site geometry yields the anti-Markovnikov product. [128]... 

Epoxidation of olefins with meta-chloroperbenzoic acid, (MCPBA) remains to this day among the most widely used methods for research-scale applications [16], Discovered by Nikolai Prilezahev in 1909 [17], it became popular only decades later, mostly through the works of Daniel Swern in the 1940s [18]. Despite its simplicity, and not unlike most epoxidation methods in use today, it suffers from undesired epoxide opening caused by the slight acidity of the reaction milieu. Although acid-catalyzed side reactions can sometimes be minimized by use of buffered systems... 

Abstract This review presents a description of the C-C bond-forming reactions that have emerged in the field of titanocene mediated or catalyzed epoxide opening over the last 5 years or so. The powerful tandem sequences for polycylization will be especially emphasized. 

Before turning to epoxide opening with low valent metal complexes, the reduction of epoxides under Birch conditions [10-13] will be discussed very briefly for historical reasons. The initially formed radical is reduced further to give carbanionic species, that do not display the reactivity of radicals. No C - C bond-forming reactions have initially been reported. 

The structure of the reagent, the mechanism of epoxide opening, deoxygenations, dimerizations and intermolecular additions will be discussed first before covering the preparatively much more important cyclization reactions [36]. 

Catalytic turn-over [59,60] in McMurry couplings [61], Nozaki-Hiyama reactions [62,63], and pinacol couplings [64,65] has been reported by Fiirst-ner and by Hirao by in situ silylation of titanium, chromium and vanadium oxo species with McaSiCl. In the epoxide-opening reactions, protonation can be employed for mediating catalytic turn-over instead of silylation because the intermediate radicals are stable toward protic conditions. The amount of Cp2TiCl needed for achieving isolated yields similar to the stoichiometric process can be reduced to 1-10 mol% by using 2,4,6-collidine hydrochloride or 2,6-lutidine hydrochloride as the acid and Zn or Mn dust as the reduc-tant (Scheme 9) [66,67]. 

Since the seminal contributions by Nugent and RajanBabu the field of reductive C - C bond formation after epoxide opening via electron transfer has developed at a rapid pace. Novel catalytic methodology, enantio- and stereoselective synthesis and numerous applications in the preparation of biologically active substances and natural products have evolved. In brief, a large repertoire of useful and original reactions is available. These reactions are waiting to be applied in a complex context ... 

An explosion was experienced dining work up of an epoxide opening reaction involving acidified sodium azide in a dichloromethane/dimethyl sulfoxide solvent. The author ascribes this to diazidomethane formation from dichloromethane [1]. A second report of an analoguous accident, also attributed to diazidomethane, almost certainly involved hydrogen azide for the cold traps of a vacuum pump on a rotary evaporator were involved this implies an explosive more volatile than dichloromethane. It is recommended that halogenated solvents be not used for azide reactions [2]. 

Domino reactions are also used in the development of new and potent pharmaceuticals, which is an important target in organic synthesis. The following example by Katoh and coworkers presents an impressive approach to the tetracyclic core structure of the novel anti-influenza A virus agent, stachyflin (1-152), using as key feature a new Lewis acid-induced domino epoxide-opening/rearrangement/cy-... 

Scheme 1.38. Domino epoxide-opening/rearrangemenl/cyclization reaction towards the total synthesis of (+)-stachyflin (1-152).

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