Titanium complexes sulfoxidation with

Recently, Feng and co-workers reported an asymmetric sulfide oxidation" catalyzed by titanium complexes bearing HydrOx ligands, for example, 576 (Scheme 8.199). ° Enantioselectivities approached a level of synthetic utility for oxidation of aryl alkyl sulfides 632 although the yields of the sulfoxide 633 were poor due to overoxidation to the sulfone 634. The overoxidation is especially significant for reactions with high enantioselectivity. 

Oxidation of the enantiotopic electron pairs at sulfur, mediated by chiral titanium complexes, to yield chiral sulfoxides with high enantiomeric excess14. 

The Orsay group found serendipitously that methyl p-tolyl sulfide was oxidized to methyl p-toly 1 sulfoxide with high enantiomeric purity (80-90% ee) when the Sharpless reagent was modified by addition of 1 mole equiv. of water [16,17]. The story of this discovery was described in a review [19], Sharpless conditions gave racemic sulfoxide and sulfone. Careful optimization of the stoichiometry of the titanium complex in the oxidation of p-tolyl sulfide led to the selection of Ti(0iPr)4/(7 ,7 )-DET/H20 (1 2 1) combination as the standard system [ 17]. In the beginning of their investigations, the standard conditions implied a stoichiometric amount of the chiral titanium complex with respect to the prochiral sulfide [16,17,20-23]. Later, proper conditions were found, which decreased the amount of the titanium complex without too much alteration of the enantioselectivity [24,25],... 

Uemura et al. [49] found that (R)-1,1 -binaphthol could replace (7 ,7 )-diethyl tartrate in the water-modified catalyst, giving good results (up to 73% ee) in the oxidation of methyl p-tolyl sulfoxide with f-BuOOH (at -20°C in toluene). The chemical yield was close to 90% with the use of a catalytic amount (10 mol %) of the titanium complex (Ti(0-i-Pr)4/(/ )-binaphthol/H20 = 1 2 20). They studied the effect of added water and found that high enantioselectivity was obtained when using 0.5-3.0 equivalents of water with respect to the sulfide. In the absence of water, enantioselectivity was very low. The beneficial effect of water is clearly established here, but the amount of water needed is much higher than that in the case of the catalyst with diethyl tartrate. They assumed that a mononuclear titanium complex with two binaphthol ligands was involved, in which water affects the structure of the titanium complex and its rate of formation. 

An irreversible tt-ct rearrangement has been observed to occur with the treatment of titanocene dicloride (8) with dimethyl sulfoxide (17). The o complex (9) has been isolated, however, treatment of the reaction mixture with benzene produces the titanium complex of dimethyl sulfoxide (10), and treatment of the reaction mixture with maleic anhydride produces the cyclopentadiene addition product (11). Monitoring the reaction mixture by proton NMR spectroscopy demonstrates the ir-a change in the bonding of the cyclopentadienyl ligands. 

A new parameter space for the synthesis of silsesquioxane precursors was defined by six different trichlorosilanes (R=cyclohexyl, cyclopentyl, phenyl, methyl, ethyl and tert-butyl) and three highly polar solvents [dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO), water and formamide]. This parameter space was screened as a function of the activity in the epoxidation of 1-octene with tert-butyl hydroperoxide (TBHP) [26] displayed by the catalysts obtained after coordination of Ti(OBu)4 to the silsesquioxane structures. Fig. 9.4 shows the relative activities of the titanium silsesquioxanes together with those of the titanium silsesquioxanes obtained from silsesquioxanes synthesised in acetonitrile. The values are normalised to the activity of the complex obtained by reacting Ti(OBu)4 with the pure cyclopentyl silsesquioxane o7b3 [(c-C5H9)7Si7012Ti0C4H9]. 

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. 

Oxidation in the presence of chiral titanium tartrate (modified Sharpless method). Inspired by the Sharpless asymmetric epoxidation48 of allylic alcohols with hydroperoxides in the presence of chiral titanium complex [diethyl tartrate (DET) and Ti(0-i-Pr)4], Kagan and co-workers46 and Modena and co-workers47 developed almost at the same time two variations of this reaction leading to o.p. sulfoxides with high enantiomeric purity. 

The Orsay system. A good example of serendipity is the discovery by Kagan and co-workers46 at Orsay that 1 mol of water was necessary to produce the active catalyst able to oxidize prochiral sulfides to sulfoxides with high ee. Optimization of the stoichiometry of the titanium complex permitted the determination of the combination Ti(0-i-Pr)4/(/ ,/ )-DET/H20 (1/ 2/ 1) at -20 °C in CH2C12 as the optimal conditions to achieve high enantioselectivity. Table 6 shows some representative results obtained for the oxidation of several thioethers with tert-butyl hydroperoxide (TBHP) under these conditions.50,51... 

A tentative catalytic cycle (Scheme 7) has been proposed for the oxidation of sulfides with the new system. In this mechanism, the active species is the monomeric titanium complex 21, formed from the dimer titanium compound 20 by the action of 2-propanol. The alcohol also has a beneficial effect by displacing the sulfoxide formed, inducing the formation of 21, thereby permitting the catalytic cycle.54... 

Complexes based on titanium excess tartrate combination (the Padova system). In 1984, the same year the Orsay group developed their system, a group in Padova, Italy, headed by Modena,47 developed a different system, able to oxidize sulfides to sulfoxides with high selectivity, also based on a modification of the Sharpless catalyst. The Padova group used TBHP in the presence of 1 mol equiv of Ti(0-/-Pr)4/(/ ,/ )-DET, 1/4 combination. The reactions were performed at -20... 

Davis et al58 prepared both enantiomers of p-anisyl methyl sulfoxide 24 by oxidation with cumene hydroperoxide in the presence of the titanium complex, and... 

Although many oxidizing reagents remove the chromium tricarbonyl group, benzylic alcohols can be oxidized to benzaldehydes using dimethyl sulfoxide with acetic anhydride, trifluoroacetic anhydride, or sulfurtrioxide with minimal decomplexation. Asymmetric oxidation of aUcylthio-substituted complexes can be achieved using titanium tetraisopropoxide and an optically active tartrate ester (Scheme 108). Dimethyloxirane can also be used to oxidize sulfides to sulfoxides. 

The overall catalytic cycle is believed to involve various titanium complexes which all have at least one isopropoxy ligand attached to the metal (Scheme 1). Given this fact, it is evident that kind and structure of the alkoxide can influence the catalysis, in particular the chirality transfer step (4—>5, via 2) and the displacement of the product sulfoxide from 5 to regenerate 3. Evidence for this assumption was obtained in studies with both other titanium alkoxides and alcohols such as methanol. In all cases less efficient catalyst systems resulted. 

Uemura described use of a Ti(OiPr)4/(i )-BINOL complex for the oxidation of alkyl aryl sulfides with aqueous ferf-butyl hydroperoxide as stoichiometric oxidant [22]. At room temperature p-tolyl methyl sulfide was converted into the corresponding sulfoxide with 96% ee in 44% yield with as little as 5 mol % of the chiral ligand. The reaction is insensitive to air, while the presence of water seems to be essential for the formation of the catalytically active species, long catalyst lifetime, and high asymmetric induction. The authors observed a large positive non-linear effect which indicates that the actual catalyst consists of a titanium species with more than one (K)-BINOL ligand (11) coordinated to the metal. 

Previously, Pasini [27] and Colonna [28] had described the use chiral titani-um-Schiff base complexes in asymmetric sulfide oxidations, but only low selec-tivities were observed. Fujita then employed a related chiral salen-titanium complex and was more successful. Starting from titanium tetrachloride, reaction with the optically active C2-symmetrical salen 15 led to a (salen)titani-um(IV) dichloride complex which underwent partial hydrolysis to generate the t]-0x0-bridged bis[(salen)titanium(IV)] catalyst 16 whose structure was confirmed by X-ray analysis. Oxidation of phenyl methyl sulfide with trityl hydroperoxide in the presence of 4 mol % of 16 gave the corresponding sulfoxide with 53% ee [29]. 

Depending on the enzyme used for oxidation of organic sulfides, sulfoxides with S- or R-configuration can be obtained with high ee, whereas at present there is only one chemical oxidation method which leads to high ee in alkyl aryl sulfoxides. This method uses chiral titanium complexes and cumene hydroperoxide for the oxidation of organic sulfides[26]. 

The best stereochemical results, however, were obtained with the new and bulky methylmetallic reagent, methyl triisopropoxy-titanium, (12) and with methylmagnesium chloride (eq. 13). Presumably, the more electrophilic chloromagnesium species formed a stronger complex with the bidendate enone sulfoxide than did the bromo or the lodomagnesium species (13) and thus forced the 3-addltlon to proceed entirely through the chelated and therefore locked conformation shown in model 9. 

Jimenez et al. have developed tridentate cyclopentadienyl-silesquioxanate titanium complexes for the epoxidation of cyclic and linear alkenes with aqueous hydrogen peroxide under mild reaction conditions with excellent reactivity and selectivity. The authors extended the studies of these complexes as catalysts for the oxidation of sulfides to sulfoxides or sulfones under mild reaction conditions. The catalysts showed high chemoselec-tivity and proved to be very stable as no loss of activity or selectivity was observed after 14 cycles. 

The Sharpless epoxidation of allylic alcohols by hydroperoxides uses as mediator [45] or as catalyst [46] a chiral titanium complex obtained from the combination Ti(OPr )4/diethyl tartrate (DET) in 1 1 ratio. Kinetic resolution of P-hydroxysulfides was also observed, but without diastereoselectivity for the product P-hydroxysulfoxides [47]. We found that the Sharpless reagent deactivated by 1 equivalent of water allows the enantioselective oxidation of aryl methyl sulfides into sulfoxides to be performed with ee s up to 90% [4S-50]. The best reagent combination proved to be Ti(0Pr )4/DET/H20 = 1 2 1. Independently, Modena et al. obtained similar enantioselectivities with the combination Ti(OPr )4/DET in 1 4 ratio [51]. These two combinations are sometimes referred to as the Kagan reagent and the Modena reagent, respectively. They will be considered successively. 

I. 10). Thus aryl ferrocenyl sulfoxides (36) (>99% ce) were prepared by CHP oxidation of (35), in presence of the titanium complex prepared under strictly defined conditions [72]. Similar oxidation was used by Gibson, nee Thomas, et al. for the preparation of sulfinyl substituted tricarbonyl (T -arene) chromium(O) complexes (38), with ee s of up to 86% [73]. It is remarkable that the conditions are mild enough to avoid overoxidation and destruction of the tricarbonylchromium moiety. 

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