Titanium complexes epoxidation

A synthetically useful diastereoselectivity (90% dc) was observed with the addition of methyl-magnesium bromide to a-epoxy aldehyde 25 in the presence of titanium(IV) chloride60. After treatment of the crude product with sodium hydride, the yy -epoxy alcohol 26 was obtained in 40% yield. The yyn-product corresponds to a chelation-controlled attack of 25 by the nucleophile. Isolation of compound 28, however, reveals that the addition reaction proceeds via a regioselective ring-opening of the epoxide, which affords the titanium-complexed chloro-hydrin 27. Chelation-controlled attack of 27 by the nucleophile leads to the -syn-diastereomer 28, which is converted to the epoxy alcohol 26 by treatment with sodium hydride. 

The original titanium-mediated epoxidation is a stoichiometric reaction.27 However, the epoxidation can be carried out with a catalytic amount (5-10 mol.%) of titanium-tartrate complex in the presence of molecular sieves.29 The advantages of the catalytic procedure are ease of product isolation, increased yield, economy, and a high substrate concentration. 

These epoxide-opening conditions were originally developed by Sharpless and coworkers for the regiocontrolled opening of 2,3-epoxy alcohols [30]. It has been proposed that ligand exchange of the substrate with isopropoxide forms a covalently bound substrate-titanium complex (Chart 3.3). Nucleophilic attack on this complex at the 3-position is favored over attack at the 2-position. In the case of 49,... 

Asymmetric epoxidation using a chiral titanium complex. 73... 

Vorstenbosch, M. L. W. Alkene Epoxidation with Silsesquioxane-Based Chromium and Titanium Complexes, Schuit Institute of Catalysis, Eindhoven, 2002. 

Nugent, W. A. (1998) Desymmetrization of meso-epoxides with halides A new catalytic reaction based on mechanistic insight, J. Am. Chem. Soc., 120 7139-7140. Bruns, S. Haufe, G. (1999) Catalytic asymmetric ring opening of epoxides to chlorohydrins with mild chloride donors and enantiopure titanium complexes.. 

Olefin epoxidation is an important industrial domain. The general approach of SOMC in this large area was to understand better the elementary steps of this reaction catalyzed by silica-supported titanium complexes, to identify precisely reaction intermediates and to explain catalyst deachvahon and titanium lixiviation that take place in the industrial Shell SMPO (styrene monomer propylene oxide) process [73]. (=SiO) Ti(OCap)4 (OCap=OR, OSiRs, OR R = hydrocarbyl) supported on MCM-41 have been evaluated as catalysts for 1-octene epoxidation by tert-butyl hydroperoxide (TBHP). Initial activity, selechvity and chemical evolution have been followed. In all cases the major product is 1,2-epoxyoctane, the diol corresponding to hydrolysis never being detected. 

Table3.7 Comparison ofinitial activities ofvarious MCM-41(soo) supported titanium complexes for 1 -octene epoxidation by TBHPat80°C (1-octene TBHP Ti = 3000 150 1).

Snapper and Hoveyda reported a catalytic enantioselective Strecker reaction of aldimines using peptide-based chiral titanium complex [Eq. (13.11)]. Rapid and combinatorial tuning of the catalyst structure is possible in their approach. Based on kinetic studies, bifunctional transition state model 24 was proposed, in which titanium acts as a Lewis acid to activate an imine and an amide carbonyl oxygen acts as a Bronsted base to deprotonate HCN. Related catalyst is also effective in an enantioselective epoxide opening by cyanide "... 

The oxygen that is transferred to the allylic alcohol to form epoxide is derived from tert-butyl hydroperoxide. The enantioselectivity of the reaction results from a titanium complex among the reagents that includes the enantiomerically pure tartrate ester as one of the ligands. The choice whether to use (+) or (-) tartrate ester for stereochemical control depends on which enantiomer of epoxide is desired. 

A competing technology is the Sharpless asynunetric epoxidation, which uses chiral titanium complexes as the catalyst. Arco uses this for production of (K)-glycidol and other epoxy alcohols in commercial quantities. 

Heterolytic liquid-phase oxidation processes are more recent than homolytic ones. The two major applications are the Wacker process for oxidation of ethylene to acetaldehyde by air, catalyzed by PdCl2-CuCl2 systems,98 and the Arco oxirane" or Shell process100 for epoxidation of propylene by f-butyl or ethylbenzene hydroperoxide catalyzed by molybdenum or titanium complexes. These heterolytic reactions require less drastic conditions than the homolytic ones... 

A.7. OTHER ASYMMETRIC EPOXIDATIONS AND OXIDATIONS CATALYZED BY TITANIUM COMPLEXES... 

The asymmetric oxidation of sulphides to chiral sulphoxides with t-butyl hydroperoxide is catalysed very effectively by a titanium complex, produced in situ from a titanium alkoxide and a chiral binaphthol, with enantioselectivities up to 96%342. The Sharpless oxidation of aryl cinnamyl selenides 217 gave a chiral 1-phenyl-2-propen-l-ol (218) via an asymmetric [2,3] sigmatropic shift (Scheme 4)343. For other titanium-catalysed epoxidations, see Section V.D.l on vanadium catalysis. 

A titanium complex (1) with a salen ligand is an efficient catalyst for the enan-tioselective epoxidation of alkenes with hydrogen peroxide as the terminal oxidant. The participation of a titanium-peroxo species, activated by hydrogen bonding, in the reaction, has been postulated.73... 

Incompletely condensed silsesquioxanes different from a7 >3 may also act as precursors for titanium complexes that are catalytically active in the epoxidation of alkenes. 

The highest catalytic activities were found for the titanium complexes obtained from tert-butyl silsesquioxanes synthesised in DM SO and water, with respectively 84% and 74% of the activity of the reference catalyst (c-C5H9)7Si7012Ti0C4H9. [With the experimental conditions employed, (c-C5H9)7Si7012Ti0C4H9 gives complete and selective conversion of TBHP towards the epoxide therefore, the relative activities of the reported catalysts correspond to their TBHP conversions towards 1,2-epoxyoctane.] These two catalysts exhibited almost the same activity as the previous best HTE catalyst (87%) obtained from cyclopentyl silsesquioxanes synthesised in acetonitrile [39, 44, 46] and are the first reported examples of tert-butyl silsesquioxanes as precursors for very active titanium catalysts. Relevant catalytic activities were also obtained with cyclohexyl silsesquioxanes synthesised in DM SO (67%) and with phenyl silsesquioxanes synthesised in H20 (61%). 

A number of stereospecific non-enzyme catalysts have been developed that convert achiral substrates into chiral products. These catalysts are usually either complex organic (Figure 10.8(a)) or organometallic compounds (Figure 10.8(b)). The organometallic catalysts are usually optically active complexes whose structures usually contain one or more chiral ligands. An exception is the Sharpless-Katsuki epoxidation, which uses a mixture of an achiral titanium complex and an enantiomer of diethyl tartrate (Figure 10.8(c)). 

Sharpless asymmetric epoxidation of allylic alcohols, asymmetric epoxidation of conjugated ketones, asymmetric sulfoxidations catalyzed, or mediated, by chiral titanium complexes, and allylic oxidations are the main classes of oxidation where asymmetric amplification effects have been discovered. The various references are listed in Table 4 with the maximum amplification index observed. 

The catalytic oxidation of hydrocarbons with peroxides, especially the epoxidation of olefins, in liquid phase by titanium catalysts is one of the most actively investigated reactions (60). The active species for this epoxidation reaction is usually assumed to be titanium peroxo moieties, derived from four-coordinate titanium and peroxides. However, the isolation of the active intermediate remains a challenge owing to the inherent instability of such species. We have been able to synthesize and stabilize the related cubic p-oxo-silicon-titanium complex (35) by reacting a bulky... 

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