Epoxides terminal

Goddu and Delker [71] reported that terminal epoxides exhibit sharp absorbances relatively free of spectral interferences in the near IR at 2.2 pm and 1.65 pm (4532 cm and 6060 cm ). These absorptions result from overtones and/or combinations of fundamental vibrations found in the mid-IR. Using a dispersive infrared spectrometer, Dannenburg [72] conducted a study of epoxides in solution. Sensitivity was restricted by the capabilities of instrumentation available at that time. These investigations were limited to epoxide resins with an equivalent weight 1000 g resin/g-eq epoxy. Concentration levels for these resins were 1.0 eq/1. 

Peck and co-workers [73] used near-FT-IR spectrometry to achieve improved sensitivity over previous near-IR techniques. A mercury-cadmium-telluride detector has sufficient sensitivity in the 4600-4500 cm region to monitor the epoxide response at the 4532 cm combination with an adequate S/N ratio. Co-addition of the interferograms can further diminish the inherent detector noise. Data manipulation routines can 

The 4532 cm combination tone is reasonably free of interferences, and can be employed to measure oxirane ring concentrations for epoxy-coating resin systems during synthesis and crosslinking. With the use of low S/N FTIR supported by computer data manipulation, chloroform solutions of five commercially available resins were analysed for epoxide-equivalent weight and correlated with results obtained by perchloric acid titrations. The near-IR technique displays linearity for epoxy concentrations of 3.6-20.7 meq/1. Similar results were obtained via a serial concentration study, indicating that the technique is not strongly affected by matrix effects. 

A comparison of terminal epoxide determinations by the near-IR method and by standard perchloric acid titration showed that the near-IR method is much less affected by interference by solvents and reagents than titration. 

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Epoxy Resins. Epoxy resins (qv) or polyether resins are thermosets used as the binder for terrazzo dooring. The epoxy resin often is made from epichlorohydrin and bisphenol A. An excess of epichlorohydrin is used to assure that the intermediate product contains terminal epoxide groups. 

The linear polymer formed is cured hy cross-linking either with an acid anhydride, which reacts with the -OH groups, or hy an amine, which opens the terminal epoxide rings. Cresols and other hisphenols are also used for producing epoxy resins. 

One class of particularly challenging targets for asymmetric epoxidation is that of terminal epoxides. Aggarwal and co-workers found that zinc carbenoids generated... 

Unfortunately, the highest enantioselectivity so far obtained for the synthesis of styrene oxide by this route is only 57 % ee with Goodman s sulfide 30 [21]. Thus methylidene transfer is not yet an effective strategy for the synthesis of terminal epoxides. 

Another way to disconnect a terminal epoxide is to add a functionalized ylide to paraformaldehyde. This was the route explored by Solladie-Cavallo, who treated two aromatic ylides with paraformaldehyde at low temperatures and obtained good selectivities (Scheme 1.14) [22]. It would thus appear that this is the best ylide-mediated route to terminal aromatic epoxides to date. 

Hodgson et al. showed that a series of bis- and tris-homoallylic terminal epoxides underwent intramolecular cydopropanation to give a range of bicydic alcohols. A short asymmetric synthesis of sabina ketone based on this chemistry was demonstrated (Scheme 5.20). A practical advantage with this process is that the volatile epoxides can be replaced with readily available chlorohydrins, an extra... 

Hodgson and coworkers extended this concept to epoxides of unsaturated cyclic ethers 128 [5] and amines 130 [46, 47] (Scheme 5.28). It is interesting that the use of trimethylsilylmethyllithium as the organolithium in this case resulted in substituted allylsilanes 129 and 131 (R = CH2SiMe3) presumably the epoxide ring protons of 128 and 130 are more acidic than those of a simple terminal epoxide (see Scheme 5.26). 

Hodgson et al. have demonstrated that arylalkenes 139 and dienes 140 can readily be prepared from simple terminal epoxides in a highly stereoselective manner by employing LTMP as base in combination with aryl and vinyllithiums as nucleophiles at 0 °C (Scheme 5.31) [41]. Without addition of LTMP, secondary alcohols... 

Use of LTMP as base [52] in situ with Me3SiCl allows straightforward access to a variety of synthetically useful a, 3-epoxysilanes 232 at near ambient temperature directly from (enantiopure) terminal epoxides 231 (Scheme 5.55) [81]. This reaction relies on the fact that the hindered lithium amide LTMP is compatible with Me3SiCl under the reaction conditions and that the electrophile trapping of the nonstabilized lithiated epoxide intermediate must be very rapid, since the latter are usually thermally very labile. 

In sharp contrast, Bartoli showed that the (salen) Co catalyst system could be applied to the kinetic resolution of terminal epoxides with unprotected tert-butyl carbamate as nucleophile with extraordinarily high selectivity factors (Scheme 7.40) [72]. Excellent yields and selectivities are also obtained with use of ethyl, Cbz,... 

Although several interesting nitrogen-centered nucleophiles have been developed with ARO reactions of epoxides (vide supra), kinetic resolutions with such reagents are unlikely to be of practical value for the recovery of enantioenriched terminal epoxides. This is due to the fact that these nucleophiles are too valuable to be discarded in a by-product of the resolution, are generally not atom-economical, and, particularly in the case of azide, may represent safety hazards. 

The principle cost determinant in typical hydrolytic or phenolic resolutions is the cobalt catalyst, despite the relatively low catalyst loadings used in most cases and the demonstrated recyclability with key substrates. From this standpoint, recently developed oligomeric (salen)Co complexes, discussed earlier in this chapter in the context of the hydrolytic desymmetrization of meso-epoxides (Scheme 7.16), offer significant advantages for kinetic resolutions of racemic terminal epoxides (Table 7.3) [29-31]. For the hydrolytic and phenolic kinetic resolutions, the oligo-... 

In a versatile stereocontrolled total synthesis of (+)-vinblastine, Fukuyama used a base-promoted macrocyclization of the N-nosylate and the terminal epoxide moiety present in 88 as one of the key steps, giving the 11-membered-ring product 89 in 82% yield (Scheme 8.23) [42],... 

Scheme 8.28 Base-promoted intramolecular cyclopropanation of unsaturated terminal epoxides.

Especially in the early steps of the synthesis of a complex molecule, there are plenty of examples in which epoxides are allowed to react with organometallic reagents. In particular, treatment of enantiomerically pure terminal epoxides with alkyl-, alkenyl-, or aryl-Grignard reagents in the presence of catalytic amounts of a copper salt, corresponding cuprates, or metal acetylides via alanate chemistry, provides a general route to optically active substituted alcohols useful as valuable building blocks in complex syntheses. 

Asymmetric epoxidation of terminal olefins has remained problematic, despite the general success of the novel dioxirane-based catalysts. The enantiomeric excesses in these reactions do not usually exceed 85% (see Section 9.1.1.1). As recrystallization of epoxides can be complicated, enantiopure terminal epoxides are difficult to obtain. 

One way of overcoming these problems is by kinetic resolution of racemic epoxides. Jacobsen has been very successful in applying chiral Co-salen catalysts, such as 21, in the kinetic resolution of terminal epoxides (Scheme 9.18) [83]. One enantiomer of the epoxide is converted into the corresponding diol, whereas the other enantiomer can be recovered intact, usually with excellent ee. The strategy works for a variety of epoxides, including vinylepoxides. The major limitation of this strategy is that the maximum theoretical yield is 50%. 

Epoxyfarnesol was first prepared by van Tamelen, Stomi, Hessler, and Schwartz 4 using essentially this procedure. It is based on the findings of van Tamelen and Curphey5 that N-bromosuccinimide in a polar solvent was a considerably more selective oxidant than others they tried. This method has been applied to produce terminally epoxidized mono-, sesqui-, di-, and triterpene systems for biosynthetic studies and bioorganic synthesis.6 It has also been applied successfully in a simple synthesis of tritium-labeled squalene [2,6,10,14,18,22-Tetracosahexaene, 2,6,10,15,19,23-hexamethyl-, (all-E)-] and squalene-2,3-oxide [Oxirane, 2,2-dimethyl-3-(3,7,12,16,20-pentamethyl-3,7,ll,-15,19-heneicosapentaenyl)-, (all-E)-],7 and in the synthesis of Cecropia juvenile hormone.8... 

In the reaction with epoxides, y-hydroxysulfones are obtained278-280. For example, Kondo and coworkers279 synthesized various (5-lactols 226 by treating sulfone acetals 225 with terminal epoxides as shown below. Dilithiated phenylsulfonylmethylene reacted with haloepoxide and afforded 3-(phenylsulfonyl)cycloalkanols281. Treatment of y, 5-epoxysulfones 227 and 229 with n-butyllithium resulted in cyclization to form cyclopropane derivatives 228 and bicyclobutane 230, respectively282. 

While alkylation of terminal epoxides is reliable, attempted alkylations of 1,2-disubstituted epoxides have proved capricious. An unsuccessful approach to the swinholides, which called for the alkylation of cyanohydrin 47 with epoxide 48, is one such example. In the event, alkylation cleanly produced imidate 49, rather than the expected product 50 [27] (Eq. 14). 

Isomerization has been observed with many a,j3-unsaturated carboxylic acids such as w-cinnamic 10), angelic, maleic, and itaconic acids (94). The possibility of catalyzing the interconversion of, for example, 2-ethyl-butadiene and 3-methylpenta-l,3-diene has not apparently been explored. The cobalt cyanide hydride will also catalyze the isomerization of epoxides to ketones (even terminal epoxides give ketones, not aldehydes) as well as their reduction to alcohols. Since the yield of ketone increases with pH, it was suggested that reduction involved reaction with the hydride [Co" (CN)jH] and isomerization reaction with [Co (CN)j] 103). A related reaction is the decomposition of 2-bromoethanol to acetaldehyde... 

Asymmetric Ring Opening of Some Terminal Epoxides Catalyzed by Dimeric Type Novel Chiral Co(Salen) Complexes... 

The asymmetric ring opening (ARO) of racemic terminal epoxides with H2O via hydrolytic kinetic resolution provides an efficient synthetic route to prepare optically pure terminal epoxides. The dimeric type chiral Co(salen)AlX3 complex has great potential to catalyze HKR of terminal epoxides in a highly reactive and enantioselective manner in comparison to their monomeric analogy. 

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