Tandem alcohol oxidation, alkene

Scheme 9 Proposed mechanism and substrate scope for tandem alcohol oxidation/Wittig reaction/alkene hydrogenation sequence...

This C - H activation event is reversible, and is required to achieve catalytic turnover [62], A series of alcohols, mostly secondary benzylic examples, have been oxidized using this catalyst. The catalytic activity does not match that of the Ir examples described above, but it has been used in several tandem reactions that feature both dehydrogenation and hydrogenation steps to achieve interesting transformations. One example is a tandem alcohol oxidation/Wittig reaction/alkene hydrogenation sequence (Scheme 9) [61,62],... 

If the oxidation is performed in the presence of an external dienophile, the respective products of [4+2] cycloaddition are formed [351-356]. Typical examples are illustrated by a one-pot synthesis of several silyl bicyclic alkenes 283 by intermolecular Diels-Alder reactions of 4-trimethylsilyl substituted masked o-benzoquinones 282 generated by oxidation of the corresponding 2-methoxyphenols 281 [351] and by the hypervalent iodine-mediated oxidative dearomatization/Diels-Alder cascade reaction of phenols 284 with allyl alcohol affording polycyclic acetals 285 (Scheme 3.118) [352]. This hypervalent iodine-promoted tandem phenolic oxidation/Diels-Alder reaction has been utilized in the stereoselective synthesis of the bacchopetiolone carbocyclic core [353]. 

Using another Ru carbene catalyst, Williams and co-workers were able to develop a tandem process involving alcohol oxidation followed by a Wittig reaction and hydrogenation of the resulting alkene. Interestingly, C-H bond activation of the carbene ligand was observed in this reaction (Scheme 12.9). 

The mechanism of the catalytic cycle is outlined in Scheme 1.37 [11]. It involves the formation of a reactive 16-electron tricarbonyliron species by coordination of allyl alcohol to pentacarbonyliron and sequential loss of two carbon monoxide ligands. Oxidative addition to a Jt-allyl hydride complex with iron in the oxidation state +2, followed by reductive elimination, affords an alkene-tricarbonyliron complex. As a result of the [1, 3]-hydride shift the allyl alcohol has been converted to an enol, which is released and the catalytically active tricarbonyliron species is regenerated. This example demonstrates that oxidation and reduction steps can be merged to a one-pot procedure by transferring them into oxidative addition and reductive elimination using the transition metal as a reversible switch. Recently, this reaction has been integrated into a tandem isomerization-aldolization reaction which was applied to the synthesis of indanones and indenones [81] and for the transformation of vinylic furanoses into cydopentenones [82]. 

Two tandem alkene metathesis-oxidation procedures using Grubb s second-generation ruthenium catalyst resulted in unique functional group transformations. Use of sodium periodate and cerium(III) chloride, in acetonitrile-water, furnished cis-diols. Oxidation with Oxone, in the presence of sodium hydrogencarbonate, yielded a-hydroxy ketones.296 Secondary alcohols are oxidized to ketones by a hydrogen... 

The palladium-catalyzed preparation of vinyl ethers through a tandem reaction consisting of an initial C—H olefination of a tertiary alcohol by an activated alkene followed by an intramolecular oxidative cychzation has been achieved using a palladium catalyst and an unusual supporting ligand (Scheme 2.107) [154]. This ligand was a leucine derivative... 

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