Swern reaction

A fluorous analogue of DMSO has been used to perform Swern reactions [24], This widely used method of oxidizing an alcohol to an aldehyde falls down seriously from the environmental point of view due to its production of a stoichiometric amount of dimethyl sulfide. Here, a fluorous sulfoxide is prepared and used in the oxidation of several alcohols in dichloromethane, as shown in Scheme 9.12. After reaction, the sulfide is extracted into perfluorohexane and the system recycled. Unfortunately, extraction from dichloromethane was found to be difficult, but replacing the dichloromethane with toluene leads to a more efficient recovery. 

The mixture of alcohols generated in this case was then admitted to a Swern reaction to get the enone 11. (For a detailed mechanism see Chapter 2.)... 

The synthesis of blastmycinone begins with a Reformatsky reaction. Although the resulting allylic alcohol 192 is a required intermediate, it is formed in this reaction without any stereocontrol. The alcohol 192 is oxidised in a Swern reaction to the enone 193 only to be resurrected in the next reaction but this time with stereocontrol. 

The classic Swern reaction (oxidation of primary alcohols to aldehydes using DMSO/(COCl)2/ R3N) has the drawback on a large scale that large amounts of CO and CO2 are generated. Many industrial processes have chosen to use the SOj.pyridine complex as an alternative... 

FIG. 23-34 Effeot of reaction pressure and temperature on tLe rate of hydrogenation of soybean oil. (Swern, ed., Baileys Industrial Oil and Fat Products, ijol 2, Wiley, 1979. )... 

In our work with aminolysis of vinylepoxides (see Section 9.2.1.1), the substrates were routinely synthesized by SAE followed by Swern/Wittig reactions (Table 9.3, Entries 1-4) [48, 49]. This procedure is well suited for terminal olefins, but dis-ubstituted olefins can seldom be obtained with useful (E Z) selectivities. Nakata recently synthesized some advanced intermediates towards natural products in this manner (Entries 5, 6) [50, 51]. 

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... 

The regiochemistry of this elimination reaction resembles that observed by Davis et al. (see Scheme 9) [23]. The special nature of the bonds in three-mem-bered rings is probably responsible for this exclusive regiochemistry. It is of interest to note that 3,3-dimethylaziridine-2-carboxylic ester indeed leads to the corresponding 3H-azirine ester upon Swern oxidation here there is, of course, no choice. 

Whereas the original Moffat-Pfitzner oxidation employs dicyclohexylcarbodiimide to convert DMSO into the reactive intermediate DMSO species 1297, which oxidizes primary or secondary alcohols via 1298 and 1299 to the carbonyl compounds and dicyclohexylurea [78-80], subsequent versions of the Moffat-Pfitzner oxidation used other reagents such as S03/pyridine [80a, 83] or oxalyl chloride [81-83] to avoid the formation of dicyclohexylurea, which is often difficult to remove. The so-called Swern oxidation, a version of the Moffat-Pfitzner oxidation employing DMSO/oxalyl chloride at -60°C in CH2CI2 and generating Me2SCl2 1277 with formation of CO/CO2, has become a standard reaction in preparative organic chemistry (Scheme 8.31). 

A number of modifications were made to meet scale-up requirements. In the preparation of the common intermediate, LiBH4 was used in place of LiAlH4 in Step A-2 and a TEMPO-NaOCl oxidation was used in place of Swern oxidation in Step A-3. Some reactions presented difficulty in the scale-up. For example, the boron enolate aldolization in Step B-l gave about 50% yield on the 20- to 25-kg scale as opposed to greater than 75% on a 50-g scale. The amide formation in Step B-3 was modified to eliminate the use of trimethylaluminum, and the common intermediate 17 could be prepared on a 30-kg scale using this modified sequence. The synthesis of the C(l)-C(6) segment V was done by Steps C-l to C-5 in 66% yield on the scale of several kg. 

The drug candidate 1 was prepared from chiral cyclopentanol 10 as shown in Scheme 7.3. Reaction of 10 with racemic imidate 17, prepared from the corresponding racemic benzylic alcohol, in the presence of catalytic TfOH furnished a 1 1 mixture of diastereomers 18 and 19 which were only separated from one another by careful and tedious chromatography. Reduction of ester 18 with LiBH4 and subsequent Swern oxidation gave aldehyde 20 in 68% yield. Reductive animation of 20 with (R)-ethyl nipecotate L-tartrate salt 21 and NaBH(OAc)3 and subsequent saponification of the ester moiety yielded drug candidate 1. 

The bromoallene (-)-kumausallene (62) was isolated in 1983 from the red alga Laurencia nipponica Yamada [64a], The synthesis of the racemic natural product by Overman and co-workers once again employed the SN2 -substitution of a propargyl mesylate with lithium dibromocuprate (Scheme 18.22) [79]. Thus, starting from the unsymmetrically substituted 2,6-dioxabicyclo[3.3.0]octane derivative 69, the first side chain was introduced by Swern oxidation and subsequent Sakurai reaction with the allylsilane 70. The resulting alcohol 71 was protected and the second side chain was attached via diastereoselective addition of a titanium acetylide. The synthesis was concluded by the introduction of two bromine atoms anti-selective S -substitution of the bulky propargyl mesylate 72 was followed by Appel bromination (tetrabromo-methane-triphenylphosphine) of the alcohol derived from deprotection of the bromoallene 73. 

The conversion of 5 to 6 is a Swern oxidation. The O of DMSO is nucleophilic, and it reacts with oxalyl chloride. Cl- then comes back and displaces O from S to give a S electrophile. The OH of 5 is then deprotonated, whereupon it attacks S, displacing CL. Then deprotonation of a Me group and a retro-hetero-ene reaction occur to give the ketone. 

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