Sharpless epoxidation catalytic method

Allylic alcohols can be converted to epoxy-alcohols with tert-butylhydroperoxide on molecular sieves, or with peroxy acids. Epoxidation of allylic alcohols can also be done with high enantioselectivity. In the Sharpless asymmetric epoxidation,allylic alcohols are converted to optically active epoxides in better than 90% ee, by treatment with r-BuOOH, titanium tetraisopropoxide and optically active diethyl tartrate. The Ti(OCHMe2)4 and diethyl tartrate can be present in catalytic amounts (15-lOmol %) if molecular sieves are present. Polymer-supported catalysts have also been reported. Since both (-t-) and ( —) diethyl tartrate are readily available, and the reaction is stereospecific, either enantiomer of the product can be prepared. The method has been successful for a wide range of primary allylic alcohols, where the double bond is mono-, di-, tri-, and tetrasubstituted. This procedure, in which an optically active catalyst is used to induce asymmetry, has proved to be one of the most important methods of asymmetric synthesis, and has been used to prepare a large number of optically active natural products and other compounds. The mechanism of the Sharpless epoxidation is believed to involve attack on the substrate by a compound formed from the titanium alkoxide and the diethyl tartrate to produce a complex that also contains the substrate and the r-BuOOH. ... 

Various catalytic or stoichiometric asymmetric syntheses and resolutions offer excellent approaches to the chiral co-side chain. Among these methods, kinetic resolution by Sharpless epoxidation,14 amino alcohol-catalyzed organozinc alkylation of a vinylic aldehyde,15 lithium acetylide addition to an alkanal,16 reduction of the corresponding prochiral ketones,17 and BINAL-H reduction18 are all worth mentioning. 

Asymmetric epoxidation of olefins is an effective approach for the synthesis of enan-tiomerically enriched epoxides. A variety of efficient methods have been developed [1, 2], including Sharpless epoxidation of allylic alcohols [3, 4], metal-catalyzed epoxidation of unfunctionalized olefins [5-10], and nucleophilic epoxidation of electron-deficient olefins [11-14], Dioxiranes and oxazirdinium salts have been proven to be effective oxidation reagents [15-21], Chiral dioxiranes [22-28] and oxaziridinium salts [19] generated in situ with Oxone from ketones and iminium salts, respectively, have been extensively investigated in numerous laboratories and have been shown to be useful toward the asymmetric epoxidation of alkenes. In these epoxidation reactions, only a catalytic amount of ketone or iminium salt is required since they are regenerated upon epoxidation of alkenes (Scheme 1). 

Although the original Sharpless epoxidation method was stoichiometric, the development of a catalytic method has allowed the reaction to be amenable to scale up. The addition of molecular sieves for the removal of trace amounts of water is important in the catalytic procedure.5 21-23... 

The power of the Sharpless epoxidation method is augmented by the versatility of the resultant 2,3-epoxy alcohols4 and the development of the catalytic variation.5... 

An additional advantage of the catalytic methods is that reactions can be performed at higher concentration. Stoichiometric reactions are typically carried out at 0.1 M substrate to minimize reactions such as epoxide opening. Catalytic reactions can be run at concentrations of 1 M although Sharpless recommends substrate concentrations of 0.3-0.5 M32-42. 

Chemically, the obvious way is to use Sharpless epoxidation followed by esterification. The advantages of this method are that it can be used to make either enantiomer, that it is cheap and catalytic, and that an unskilled worker can do it. Only t-BuOOH is consumed. 

Asymmetric oxidations have followed the usual development pathway in which face selectivity was observed through the use of chiral auxiliaries and templates. The breakthrough came with the Sharpless asymmetric epoxidation method, which, although stoichiometric, allowed for a wide range of substrates and the stereochemistry of the product to be controlled in a predictable manner [1]. The need for a catalytic reaction was very apparent, but this was developed and now the Sharpless epoxidation is a viable process al scale, although subject to the usual economic problems of a cost-effective route to the substrate (see later) [2]. The Sharpless epoxidation has now been joined by other methods and a wide range of products are now available. The pow er of these oxidations is augmented by the synthetic utility of the resultant epoxides or diols that can be used for further transformations, especially those that use a substitution reaction (see Chapter 7) [1]. 

Introduction Catalytic methods of asymmetric induction Part I - Sharpless Asymmetric Epoxidation The AE Method The ligands The catalyst Catalyst structure The mnemonic device The synthesis of propranolol Modification after Sharpless Epoxidation Oxidation after Sharpless epoxidation The Payne rearrangement... 

We dedicate a large part of this chapter to two very important, and extraordinarily useful, enantioselective methods - catalytic asymmetric epoxidation (AE) and catalytic asymmetric dihydroxylation (AD). Impressively, both these methods were developed by Professor Barry Sharpless s research group and are therefore often referred to as the Sharpless epoxidation and the Sharpless dihydroxylation. Both are examples of ligand-accelerated catalysis. 

The Sharpless dihydroxylation reaction (AD) is arguably the most important discovery in organic chemistry of the 20th century. There is no question that asymmetric synthesis is at the forefront of modern synthetic organic chemistry. And the most impressive asymmetric methods are those which are catalytic. The Sharpless epoxidation achieved this and more. But those methods that... 

Then we changed over to the isomer allylic alcohol, to 3-methyl-2-buten-l-ol (prenol). Being a primary alcohol, it was smoothly epoxidized under both stoichiometric and catalytic Sharpless conditions. While the stoichiometric method provides only moderate yields as the dimethyl glycidol is fairly watersoluble, the catalytic method affords the double yield. The e.e. amounts to 90% in both cases. Optical purity and e.e. of the 3,3-dimethyl glycidol were determined by polarimetry and -NMR in the presence of chiral europium shift-reagent [22]. 

There are several efficient methods available for the synthesis of homochiral sulfoxides [3], such as asymmetric oxidation, optical resolution (chemical or bio-catalytic) and nucleophilic substitution on chiral sulfinates (the Andersen synthesis). The asymmetric oxidation process, in particular, has received much attention recently. The first practical example of asymmetric oxidation based on a modified Sharpless epoxidation reagent was first reported by Kagan [4] and Modena [5] independently. With further improvement on the oxidant and the chiral ligand, chiral sulfoxides of >95% ee can be routinely prepared by these asymmetric oxidation methods. Nonetheless, of these methods, the Andersen synthesis [6] is still one of the most widely used and reliable synthetic route to homochiral sulfoxides. Clean inversion takes place at the stereogenic sulfur center of the sulfinate in the Andersen synthesis. Therefore, the key advantage of the Andersen approach is that the absolute configuration of the resulting sulfoxide is well defined provided the absolute stereochemistry of the sulfinate is known. 

Olefins are very important industrial raw materials, and much effort has been devoted toward using them as substrates in asymmetric synthesis [811, 812, 853], The industrial synthesis of nonracemic a-aminoacids by catalytic hydrogenation was ore of the first important uses of olefins in asymmetric synthesis [859], Today, the Sharpless epoxidation of allylic alcohols [807, 808, 809] is one of the most popular methods in asymmetric synthesis. The importance of pyrethrinoid pesticides, bearing a cyclopropane skeleton, justifies the efforts devoted to the asymmetric synthesis of cyclopropanes from alkenes [811,812, 937],... 

The Sharpless epoxidation of allyl alcohols 3.16 by /erf-butyl hydroperoxide under catalysis with chiral titanium complexes is a very popular method that has frequently been used in industry [811, 812, 853], This epoxidation was initially developed with stoichiometric amounts of tartrate catalysts. Today, it is usually performed in the presence of catalytic amounts of Ti(0/ -Pr)4 and diethyl or diisopropyl tartrate (2R,3R)- or (25,35)-2.69 (R = Et or r-Pr). The reactions are conducted at or near room temperature in the presence of molecular sieves. Several... 

Chiral epoxides and vicinal diols (employed as their corresponding cyclic sulfate or sulfite esters as reactive intermediates) are extensively employed high-value intermediates in the synthesis of chiral compounds because of their ability to react with a broad variety of nucleophiles (Figs. 11.2-1 and 11.2-2). In recent years, extensive efforts have been devoted to the development of chemo-catalytic methods for their production19, 10]. Thus, the Sharpless methods allowing for the asymmetric epoxida-... 

The industrial synthesis is considerably more elegant. It involves one of the few non-enzymatic, enantioselective synthetic methods, which can be widely transferred to the industrial scale the Sharpless epoxidation. Through the use of molecular sieves, K. B. Sharpless succeeded in carrying out the reaction with catalytic amounts of the enantiomericaUy pure titanium complex. Only this discovery rendered the reaction suitable for industrial dimensions. 

Because the priority during the first phase of drug discovery is rapid access to target molecules, the use of chiral reagents and chiral catalysts is fairly uncommon, with successful applications confined to a small number of well developed methodologies. Pre-eminent amongst these is the Sharpless epoxidation of allylic alcohols, which was first reported as a stoichiometric method in 1980 [105] and later adapted into a practical catalytic variant [106]. 

The first practical method for asymmetric epoxidation of primary and secondary allylic alcohols was developed by K.B. Sharpless in 1980 (T. Katsuki, 1980 K.B. Sharpless, 1983 A, B, 1986 see also D. Hoppe, 1982). Tartaric esters, e.g., DET and DIPT" ( = diethyl and diisopropyl ( + )- or (— )-tartrates), are applied as chiral auxiliaries, titanium tetrakis(2-pro-panolate) as a catalyst and tert-butyl hydroperoxide (= TBHP, Bu OOH) as the oxidant. If the reaction mixture is kept absolutely dry, catalytic amounts of the dialkyl tartrate-titanium(IV) complex are suflicient, which largely facilitates work-up procedures (Y. Gao, 1987). Depending on the tartrate enantiomer used, either one of the 2,3-epoxy alcohols may be obtained with high enantioselectivity. The titanium probably binds to the diol grouping of one tartrate molecule and to the hydroxy groups of the bulky hydroperoxide and of the allylic alcohol... 

The past thirty years have witnessed great advances in the selective synthesis of epoxides, and numerous regio-, chemo-, enantio-, and diastereoselective methods have been developed. Discovered in 1980, the Katsuki-Sharpless catalytic asymmetric epoxidation of allylic alcohols, in which a catalyst for the first time demonstrated both high selectivity and substrate promiscuity, was the first practical entry into the world of chiral 2,3-epoxy alcohols [10, 11]. Asymmetric catalysis of the epoxidation of unfunctionalized olefins through the use of Jacobsen s chiral [(sale-i i) Mi iln] [12] or Shi s chiral ketones [13] as oxidants is also well established. Catalytic asymmetric epoxidations have been comprehensively reviewed [14, 15]. 

Although it was also Henbest who reported as early as 1965 the first asymmetric epoxidation by using a chiral peracid, without doubt, one of the methods of enantioselective synthesis most frequently used in the past few years has been the "asymmetric epoxidation" reported in 1980 by K.B. Sharpless [3] which meets almost all the requirements for being an "ideal" reaction. That is to say, complete stereofacial selectivities are achieved under catalytic conditions and working at the multigram scale. The method, which is summarised in Fig. 10.1, involves the titanium (IV)-catalysed epoxidation of allylic alcohols in the presence of tartaric esters as chiral ligands. The reagents for this asyimnetric epoxidation of primary allylic alcohols are L-(+)- or D-(-)-diethyl (DET) or diisopropyl (DIPT) tartrate,27 titanium tetraisopropoxide and water free solutions of fert-butyl hydroperoxide. The natural and unnatural diethyl tartrates, as well as titanium tetraisopropoxide are commercially available, and the required water-free solution of tert-bnty hydroperoxide is easily prepared from the commercially available isooctane solutions. 

This method has proven to be an extremely useful means of synthesizing enantiomerically enriched compounds. Various improvements in the methods for carrying out the Sharpless oxidation have been developed.48 The reaction can be done with catalytic amounts of titanium isopropoxide and the tartrate ester.49 This procedure uses molecular sieves to sequester water, which has a deleterious effect on both the rate and enantioselectivity of the reaction. Scheme 12.9 gives some examples of enantioselective epoxidation of allylic alcohols. 

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