Selenides, alkyl phenyl oxidation

Table 12 Oxidation potentials of alkyl phenyl selenides...

Synthesis of alkenes. Terminal alkenes are formed in good yield by oxidation of primary alkyl 2-pyridyl selenides with a slight excess of H202 (equation I). The same reaction with primary alkyl phenyl selenides proceeds in much lower yield. 

RSeCJIi — ROCHi. Oxidation of an alkyl phenyl selenide with m-chloroperben-zoic acid (2-5 equiv.) in methanol affords the corresponding alkyl methyl ethers in high yield. Oxidation of selenides with a vicinal phenyl group is accompanied by rearrangement of the phenyl group. vtc-Methoxy selenides derived from cycloalkenes are oxidized under these conditions to dimethyl acetals of ring-contracted aldehydes. 

Oxidation of alkyl phenyl selenides with excess MCPBA in alcohols results in a facile substitution of a selenone moiety by an alkoxy group (Scheme The intermediate addition compound (47) be-... 

The first example of the use of the catalytic one-pot procedure described above, in which the deselenenylation occurs with substitution, is represented by the conversion of vinyl halides into a-alkoxy acetals [116]. This is illustrated in Scheme 38 in the case of -bromostyrene 235. The regioselective methoxy-selenenylation affords the a-bromo selenide 236, which undergoes a rapid solvolysis, through a selenium-stabilized carbocation to produce the selenide 237. Oxidation of this alkyl phenyl selenide with ammonium persulfate produces an oxygen stabilized carbocation, which affords the final product 238, and, at the same time, regenerates the selenenylating agent. 

In the former case, almost complete stereoselective oxidation to the chiral selenoxides has been accomplished quite recently. The Davis oxidant, 3,3-di-chloro-l,7,7-trimethyl-2 -(phenylsulfonyl)spirobicyclol2.2.11heptane-2,3 -oxa-ziridine, was found to be the most efficient reagent for the enantioselective oxidation of a variety of prochiral alkyl aryl selenides [81. Asymmetric oxidation was accomplished by the treatment of the selenides with 1 molar equivalent of the Davis oxidant at 0°C to afford the corresponding chiral alkyl aryl selenoxides in quantitative yields with 91-95% ee (Scheme 1). The oxidation of methyl phenyl selenide was complete within 1 min, whereas that of triiso-propyl(a bulkier alkyl) phenyl selenide required a few hours. Typical results are... 

Alkylation and other electrophilic reactions of vinyl sulphides and selenides following of-metallation include a number of useful synthetic procedures. Addition of an alkyl-lithium to phenyl vinyl selenide gives the cc-lithio- -alkylated selenide, which, on further alkylation and oxidative deselenation, gives the 1,2-disubstituted ethylene (H2C=CHSePh - R CHjCHLiSePh - R CH2CHR SePh - R CH=CHR ), thus permitting the vinyl selenide to be... 

Propargyl phenyl selenide is a versatile multifunctional acrylate synthon, as shown in Scheme 12. The (Uanion is prepared and reacted successively with an alkylating agent (R— X) and an electrophile (E ). The oxidative rearrangement of the propargylic selenoxide (35) to an allenic selenenate (36), and thence to the a-phenylselenoenone (37), forms the keystone of this synthetic method, and ovendl yields firom propargyl phenyl selenide are in the range of 38-68%. Further elaboration of (37) is possible... 

Until quite recently the isolation of optically active selenoxides has been limited to those contained in steroids (isolated as diastereoisomers). The difficulty in obtaining these compounds was attributed to the racemization through the achiral hydrated intermediates. Simple optically active selenoxides (5-11% ee) were first prepared by kinetic resolution. Direct oxidation of selenides to selenoxides was first reported using optically active oxaziridine derivatives under anhydrous conditions, but the extent of the asymmetric induction was somewhat unsatisfactory with methyl phenyl selenide as substrate (8-9% ee). Recently much improved enantiomeric excesses (45-73%) were achieved with new oxaziridine reagents such as (70). An attempt at the asymmetric oxidation of more bulky selenides was independently carried out using Bu OCl in the presence of (-)-2-octanol (equation 55),2 but resulted in unsatisfactory enantioselectivities (ee 1%). Much better results were obtained by the oxidation of P-oxyalkyl aryl selenides (ee 18-40% equation 56) and alkyl aryl selenides (ee 1-28%) 2S using TBHP in the presence of (+)- or (-)-diisopropyl tartarate (DIPT) and titanium(IV) alkoxide. 

Thus, when cyclohexyl selenides 1, prepared from the corresponding 4-sub-stituted cyclohexanone via the selenoketals, were oxidized with various Davis and Sharpless oxidants, the chiral alkyl aryl 4-substituted cyclohexylidenemethyl ketones were obtained in excellent chemical yields with high enantiomeric excesses. Typical results are summarized in Table 4. In this asymmetric induction, of the substrate and the chiral oxidant employed were revealed to show a remarkable effect upon the enantioselectivity of the product. The use of a methyl moiety as instead of a phenyl moiety gave a higher ee value, probably due to the steric difference between the two groups bonded to the selenium atom of the substrate. The results indicate that the titanium complex of the Sharpless oxidant may promote the racemization of the chiral selenoxide intermediate by acting as a Lewis acid catalyst, whereas the racemization in the case of the Davis oxidant, which is aprotic in nature, is slow. 

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