Transition metal catalysts Sharpless titanium

Hie first of Sharpless s reactions is an oxidation of alkenes by asymmetric epoxidation. You met vanadium as a transition-metal catalyst for epoxidation with r-butyl hydroperoxide in Chapter 33, and this new reaction makes use of titanium, as titanium tetraisopropoxide, Ti(OiPr)4, to do the same thing. Sharpless surmised that, by adding a chiral ligand to the titanium catalyst, he might be able to make the reaction asymmetric. The ligand that works best is diethyl tartrate, and the reaction shown below is just one of many that demonstrate that this is a remarkably good reaction. 

With chiral ligands, the transition-metal catalyst-hydroperoxide complex yields optically active oxiranes. " One of the most significant advances in the formation of chiral epoxides from allyl alcohols has recently been reported by the Sharpless group. Using (-l-)-tartaric acid, ferf-butylhydroperoxide, and titanium isopropoxide, they were able to obtain chiral epoxides in very high enantiomeric excess. The enantiomeric epoxide can be obtained by employing (—)-tartaric acid (Eq. 33a). 

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