Titanium isopropoxide. Sharpless reagent

Chiral epoxides are important intermediates in organic synthesis. A benchmark classic in the area of asymmetric catalytic oxidation is the Sharpless epoxidation of allylic alcohols in which a complex of titanium and tartrate salt is the active catalyst [273]. Its success is due to its ease of execution and the ready availability of reagents. A wide variety of primary allylic alcohols are epoxidized in >90% optical yield and 70-90% chemical yield using tert-butyl hydroperoxide as the oxygen donor and titanium-isopropoxide-diethyltartrate (DET) as the catalyst (Fig. 4.97). In order for this reaction to be catalytic, the exclusion of water is absolutely essential. This is achieved by adding 3 A or 4 A molecular sieves. The catalytic cycle is identical to that for titanium epoxidations discussed above (see Fig. 4.20) and the actual catalytic species is believed to be a 2 2 titanium(IV) tartrate dimer (see Fig. 4.98). The key step is the preferential transfer of oxygen from a coordinated alkylperoxo moiety to one enantioface of a coordinated allylic alcohol. For further information the reader is referred to the many reviews that have been written on this reaction [274, 275]. 

The Sharpless reagent consists of three components rcrr-butyl hydroperoxide, (CHgjgCOOH a titanium catalyst—usually titanium(IV) isopropoxide, Ti[OCH(CH3)2l4 and diethyl tartrate (DET). There are two different chiral diethyl tartrate isomers, labeled as (+)-DET or (-)-DET to indicate the direction in which they rotate polarized light. 

Kinetic resolution of secondary allylic alcohols by Sharpless asymmetric epoxidation using fert-butylhydroperoxide in the presence of a chiral titanium-tartrate catalyst has been widely used in the synthesis of chiral natural products. As an extension of this synthetic procedure, the kinetic resolution of a-(2-furfuryl)alkylamides with a modified Sharpless reagent has been used . Thus treatment of racemic A-p-toluenesulphonyl-a-(2-furfuryl)ethylamine [( )-74] with fert-butylhydroperoxide, titanium isopropoxide [Ti(OPr-/)4], calcium hydride (CaHa), silica gel and L-(+)-diisopropyl tartrate [l-(+)-DIPT] gave (S)-Al-p-toluenesulphonyl-a-(2-furfuryl)ethylamine [(S)-74] in high chemical yield and enantiomeric excess . Similarly prepared were the (S)-Al-p-toluenesulphonyl-a-(2-furfuryl)-n-propylamine and other homologues of (S)-74 using l-(+)-D1PT. When D-(—)-DIPT was used, the enantiomers were formed . ... 

The first such process is a variant of the oxacyclo-propanation reaction discussed in Section 12-10, as applied specifically to 2-propenyl (allylic) alcohols. However, instead of a peroxycarboxylic acid, the reagent is ferf-butyl hydroperoxide in the presence of titanium (TV) isopropoxide ( Sharpless epoxidation ), the function of the chiral auxiliary being assumed by tartaric acid diethyl ester (Real Life 5-3). The naturally occurring (-l-)-[2/ ,3/ ]-diethyl tartrate and its nonnatural (—)-(25,35) mirror image are both commercial products. One delivers oxygen to one face of the double bond, the other to the opposite face, as shown below, giving either enantiomer of the oxacyclopropane product with high enantiomer excess (Section 5-2). 

The Sharpless epoxidation uses ferf-butyl hydroperoxide, titanium(IV) isopropoxide, and a dialkyl tartrate ester as the reagents. The following epoxidation of geraniol is typical. 

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