The Sharpless Asymmetric Epoxidation

In 1980, K. B. Sharpless (then at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, presently at The Scripps Research Institute) and co-workers reported a method that has since become one of the most valuable tools for chiral synthesis. The Sharpless asymmetric epoxidation is a method for converting allylic alcohols (Section 11.1) to chiral epoxy alcohols with very high enan-tioselectivity (i.e., with preference for one enantiomer rather than formation of a racemic mixture). In recognition of this and other work in asymmetric oxidation methods (see Section 8.16A), Sharpless received half of the 2001 Nobel Prize in Chemistry (the other half was awarded to W. S. Knowles and R. Noyori see Section 7.14). The Sharpless asymmetric epoxidation involves treating the allylic alcohol with tert-butyl hydroperoxide, titanium(IV) tetraisopropoxide [Ti(0—/-POJ, and a specific stereoisomer of a tartrate ester. (The tartrate stereoisomer that is chosen depends on the specific enantiomer of the epoxide desired). The following is an example  

The oxygen that is transferred to the allylic alcohol to form the epoxide is derived from tert-butyl hydroperoxide. The enantioselectivity ofthe reaction results from a titanium complex among the reagents that includes the enan-tiomerically pure tartrate ester as one of the ligands. The choice of whether to use the (-t)- or (-)-tartrate ester for stereochemical control depends on which enantiomer of the epoxide is desired. [The (-t)- and (-)-tartrates are either diethyl or diisopropyl esters.] The stereochemical preferences ofthe reaction have been well studied, such that it is possible to prepare either enantiomer of a chiral epoxide in high enantiomeric excess, simply by choosing the appropriate (-1-)- or (—)-tartrate stereoisomer as the chiral ligand  

Compounds of this general structure are extremely useful and versatile synthons because combined in one molecule are an epoxide functional group (a highly reactive electrophilic site), an alcohol functional group (a potentially nucleophilic site), and at least one chirality center that is present in high enantiomeric purity. The synthetic utility of chi- 

For example, trflns-2-butene yields racemic trans-2,3-dimethyloxirane, because addition of oxygen to each face of the alkene generates an enantiomer. cw-2-Butene, on the other hand, yields only c -2,3-dimethyloxirane, no matter which face of the alkene accepts the oxygen atom, due to the plane of symmetry in both the reactant and the product. If additional chirality centers are present in a substrate, then diastereomers would result. 

In Special Topic C (Section C.3) we present a method for synthesizing epoxides from aldehydes and ketones. 

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Figure 1. Stereofacial selectivity rule for the Sharpless asymmetric epoxidation.

Scheme 4. The Sharpless asymmetric epoxidation in the J.T. Baker Company s commercial synthesis of (7/ ,8S)-disparlure (15).

A noteworthy feature of the Sharpless Asymmetric Epoxidation (SAE) is that kinetic resolution of racemic mixtures of chiral secondary allylic alcohols can be achieved, because the chiral catalyst reacts much faster with one enantiomer than with the other. A mixture of resolved product and resolved starting material results which can usually be separated chromatographically. Unfortunately, for reasons that are not yet fully understood, the AD is much less effective at kinetic resolution than the SAE. 

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. ... 

Although the Sharpless asymmetric epoxidation is an elegant method to introduce a specific defined chirality in epoxy alcohols and thus, in functionalized aziridines (see Sect. 2.1), it is restricted to the use of allylic alcohols as the starting materials. To overcome this limitation, cyclic sulfites and sulfates derived from enantiopure vfc-diols can be used as synthetic equivalents of epoxides (Scheme 5) [12,13]. 

The epoxidation of allylic alcohols can also be effected by /-butyl hydroperoxide and titanium tetraisopropoxide. When enantiomerically pure tartrate ligands are included, the reaction is highly enantioselective. This reaction is called the Sharpless asymmetric epoxidation.55 Either the (+) or (—) tartrate ester can be used, so either enantiomer of the desired product can be obtained. 

The synthesis shown in Scheme 13.66 starts with the Sharpless asymmetric epoxidation product of geraniol. The epoxide was opened with inversion of configuration by NaBHjCN-BFj. The double bond was cleaved by ozonolysis and converted to the corresponding primary bromide. The terminal alkyne was introduced by alkylation of... 

In 1980, K. B. Sharpless (then at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, presently at the University of California San Diego, Scripps research Institute co-winner of the Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 2001) and co-workers reported the Sharpless asymmetric epoxidation . 

The synthetic utility of chiral epoxy alcohol synthons produced by the Sharpless asymmetric epoxidation has been demonstrated in enantioselective syntheses of many important compounds. 

The MABR-promoted rearrangement, when applied to optically active epoxy substrates, has been shown to proceed with rigorous transfer of the epoxide chirality. Accordingly, used in combination with the Sharpless asymmetric epoxidation of allylic alcohols,5 this rearrangement represents a new approach to the synthesis of various... 

Since the first two approaches are very well known and exploited, and excellent reviews and books on the topic are available [1], we will deal only with some of the most recent findings in chemical catalysis -excluding the Sharpless asymmetric epoxidation and dihydroxylation, to which the whole of Chapter 10 is devoted. Synthetic catalysts which mimic the catalytic action of enzymes, known as chemzymes, will be also considered. 

As an example of the usefulness of the Sharpless asymmetric epoxidation the enantioselective synthesis of (-)-swainsonine and an early note by Nicolaou on the stereocontrolled synthesis of 1, 3, 5...(2n + 1) polyols, undertaken in connection with a programme directed towards the total synthesis of polyene macrolide antibiotics, such as amphotericin B and nystatin Aj, will be discussed. 

When a nonproteinogenic unsaturated amino acid was subjected to the Sharpless asymmetric epoxidation, 49 was formed (87TL3605). It is known that AAs are converted with phosgene into A-carboxy-a-amino acid anhydride (NCA) derivatives. Unexpectedly, A-protected dehydroaspartic acid gave l,3-oxazine-2,6-dione-4-carboxylic acid under such conditions (88CL1473). 

With a twist on the Sharpless asymmetric epoxidation protocol, Yamamoto and co-workers <99JOC338> have developed a chiral hydroxamic acid (17) derived from binaphthol, which serves as a coordinative chiral auxiliary when combined with VO(acac)j or VO(i-PrO)j in the epoxidation of allylic alcohols. In this protocol, triphenylmethyl hydroperoxide (TiOOH) provides markedly increased enantiomeric excess, compared to the more traditional t-butyl hydroperoxide. Thus, the epoxidation of E-2,3-diphenyl-2-propenol (18) with 7.5 mol% VO(i-PiO)3 and 15 mol% of 17 in toluene (-20 °C 24 h) provided the 2S,3S epoxide 19 in 83% ee. 

Titanium-pillared montmorillonite may be used as a heterogeneous catalyst for the Sharpless asymmetric epoxidation of allylic alcohols (Scheme 20) (46). The enantiomeric purities of the epoxy products are comparable with those achieved using homogeneous Ti isopropoxide with molecular sieves as water scavengers (Chapter 4). Since basal spacing of the recovered catalyst after the reaction is unaltered, the catalyst can be recycled. 

Asymmetric epoxidation, dihydroxylation, aminohydroxylation, and aziridination reactions have been reviewed.62 The use of the Sharpless asymmetric epoxidation method for the desymmetrization of mesa compounds has been reviewed.63 The conformational flexibility of nine-membered ring allylic alcohols results in transepoxide stereochemistry from syn epoxidation using VO(acac)2-hydroperoxide systems in which the hydroxyl group still controls the facial stereoselectivity.64 The stereoselectivity of side-chain epoxidation of a series of 22-hydroxy-A23-sterols with C(19) side-chains incorporating allylic alcohols has been investigated, using m-CPBA or /-BuOOH in the presence of VO(acac)2 or Mo(CO)6-65 The erythro-threo distributions of the products were determined and the effect of substituents on the three positions of the double bond (gem to the OH or cis or trans at the remote carbon) partially rationalized by molecular modelling. 

The epoxidation of alkenylsilanols parallels that of allylic alcohols in exhibiting good enantioselectivities339. Kinetic resolution of the alkenylsilanol 213 by the Sharpless asymmetric epoxidation has been accomplished, with the rate difference for the oxidation of the enantiomers of 213 being unusually high (>11)340. 

Asymmetric oxidations have followed the usual development pathway where 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.4... 

This is an example of the Sharpless asymmetric epoxidation reaction of allylic alcohols 7 one of the most versatile, reliable, and synthetically... 

Whereas these solid catalysts tolerate water to some extent, or even use aqueous H2O2 as the oxidant, the use of homogeneous Ti catalysts in epoxi-dation reactions often demands strictly anhydrous conditions. The homogeneous catalysts are often titanium alkoxides, possibly in combination with chiral modifiers, as in the Sharpless asymmetric epoxidation of allylic alcohols (15). There has recently been an increase in interest in supporting this enantioselective Ti catalyst. 

The oxidation of sulfides to sulfoxides can be made asymmetric by using one of the important reactions we introduced in the last chapter—the Sharpless asymmetric epoxidation. The French chemist Henri Kagan discovered in 1984 that, by treating a sulfide with the oxidant f-butyl hydroperoxide in the presence of Sharpless s chiral catalyst (Ti(OlPr)4 plus one enantiomer of diethyl tar- . , ... 

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