Thiiranes epoxides

Epoxides— thiiranes. Epoxides, at least those obtained in good yield by the method formulated, are converted into thiiranes in yields mainly in the range 90-95% by reaction with thiourea in the presence of dilute sulfuric acid at 5-10°."... 

Thiiranes (77) show some juvenile hormone activity, but the epoxide is often more active. Thiophosphates of 2-mercaptomethylthiirane are strong contact insecticides 2-chloromethylthiirane and4-vinyl- 1,2-epithiocyclohexane are nematocides. Severalthiirane 1 -oxides are reported to be insecticides, molluscicides and herbicides (68USP3413306). 1,2-Epithio-1,2,3,4-tetrahydronaphthalene is a mild herbicide. 

The chapter is divided into three sections, devoted to the discussion of the synthesis of (1) oxiranes (epoxides), (2) aziridines (ethylene imines) and (3) thiiranes (episulfides). 

In general, thiocyanate salts are used for the epoxide-thiirane conversions. The reaction proceeds by nucleophilic attack on the epoxide by thiocyanate ion followed by cyclization as shown for (121) (125). The formation of a... 

Acetic anhydride has also been used as the acylating agent. The formation of thiiranes from thiocyanatohydrins having a tertiary hydroxy group is best achieved by p-toluenesulfonic acid-catalyzed acetylation.The analogous thiocyanatohydrins with a secondary hydroxyl and a tertiary thiocyanate function give a predominance of epoxide from thiocyanatohydrin acetates since the hydrolysis rate of the secondary acetate grouping becomes competitive with that of the tertiary thiocyanate. 

The NMR study of steroidal epoxides (discussed in section II-F) parallels that of the analogous thiiranes. It is possible to relate the location and configuration of the thiirane group with the angular methyl and thiirane proton resonances. The proton NMR relationships for the intermediate thiocyanatohydrins have been included inageneral NMR study of steroids. Electronic spectra may be used in the analysis of steroidal thiiranes. Spectroscopic measurements have shown the existence of a low intensity absorption in the 240-260 m region. The regular patterns of rotatory contributions of thiiranes which are comparable with those of ketones prompted an accumulation of ORD and CD data for steroidal thiiranes. 

The Corey-Chaykovsky reaction entails the reaction of a sulfur ylide, either dimethylsulfoxonium methylide (1, Corey s ylide, sometimes known as DMSY) or dimethylsulfonium methylide (2), with electrophile 3 such as carbonyl, olefin, imine, or thiocarbonyl, to offer 4 as the corresponding epoxide, cyclopropane, aziridine, or thiirane. ... 

Finally, epoxides can be converted into other functional groups under certain well-defined conditions. For example, ceric ammonium nitrate (CAN) catalyzes the efficient conversion of epoxides to thiiranes (i.e., 124 125) at room temperature in te/t-butanol <96SYN821>. 

A quite different use of a thiocyanate salt is the conversion of an epoxide (oxirane) to an episulfide (thiirane) this normally heterogeneous reaction is markedly accelerated by the use of silica gel coated with, or finely ground with, potassium thiocyanate, rather than with the thiocyanate salt alone.17... 

We had for some time considered that aziridines, because of their increased basicity and hence reactivity at the active site of a glycan hydrolase, would prove to be better inhibitors than the epoxides in many respects. Conversely, the less basic thiirans would be expected to be poorer inhibitors than the corresponding epoxides. We thus embarked on a synthesis of the aziridine 30 and the thiiran 31. 

Simple heterocyclic compounds Three-membered heterocycles containing one heteroatom Oxiranes (epoxides), thiiranes (episulfides), aziridines Three-membered heterocycles containing more than one heteroatom Oxaziridines, dioxiranes, diazirines Four-membered heterocycles containing one heteroatom Oxetanes, thietanes, azetidines... 

A series of epoxides has been efficiently converted to the corresponding thiiranes using a polymer-bound quaternary ammonium thiocyanate 38. The polymeric byproduct of this transformation is the supported cyanate.56... 

Some of the more important monomers whose ring opening polymerisations have been induced by stable cation salts include, 1,4-epoxides, notably tetra-hydrofuran (20,112,113), 1,2-epoxides (114), 1,3-episulphides (thietans) (33,53), 1,2-episulphides (thiiranes) (53), azetidines (115,116), aziridines (117), the cyclic formals, 1,3-dioxolan (23,54, 118-120), and 1,3-dioxepan (118,119), trioxane (121,122) and more recently lactones (123). Aldehydes (124) may also be included since these molecules can be regarded as the smallest possible oxygen hetero-... 

Few procedures are available for the synthesis of steroid thiiranes because the rigidity of the steroid nucleus prohibits the application of many methods of thiirane synthesis.140,141,142 The only general methods involve the conversion of an epoxide to an episulfide of inverted stereochemistry. 

In general, thiocyanate salts are used for the epoxide-thiirane conversions. The reaction proceeds by nucleophilic attack on the epoxide by thiocyanate ion followed by cyclization as shown for (121) - (125). The formation of a fused cyclic intermediate (123)143 is only possible if the sulfur and oxygen substituents are equatorial and ring A assumes a boat conformation. These restrictions limit the application of this procedure to the synthesis of 2,3-thiiranes which are usually obtained in less than 15% yield.144... 

Fluorenyl Carbanions. Salts of fiuorene (pAa = 22.6) (6) are more hindered and less reactive than many other organometallic initiators. These carbanions can be readily formed by reaction with alkali metal derivatives as shown in equation 19 for 9-methylfiuorene (99). Carbanion salts of 9-methylfiuorene are preferable to fiuorene, since the latter generate chain ends which retain reactive, acidic fluorenyl hydrogens which can participate in chain-transfer reactions (100,101). Fluorenyl salts are useful initiators for the polymerization of alkyl methacrylates, epoxide, and thiirane monomers. 

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