Aldehydes, unsaturated epoxidation

Titanium alkyls, known as tamed Grignard reagents, do not add to esters, nitriles, epoxides, or nitroalkanes at low temperatures. Rather, they add exclusively ia a 1,2 fashion to unsaturated aldehydes (208—210). 

Chiral sulfonium salts derived from oxathianes have been developed for stoichiometric epoxidation reactions. The sulfonium salts were deprotonated and allowed to react with a, 3-unsaturated aldehydes to give trons-vinylepoxides with excellent ees and transxis ratios (Scheme 9.16b) [76]. The yields were generally high [75], and the best results were obtained with Ar = 4-OMePh. 

Vinylic sulfides containing an a hydrogen can also be alkylated by alkyl halides or epoxides. This is a method for converting an alkyl halide RX to an a,P unsaturated aldehyde, which is the synthetic equivalent of the unknown HC=CH—CHO ion. Even simple alkyl aryl sulfides RCH2SAr and RR CHSAr have been alkylated a to the sulfur. ... 

Reaction of the carbanion of chloromethyl phenyl sulphoxide 409 with carbonyl compounds yields the corresponding 0-hydroxy adducts 410 in 68-79% yield. Each of these compounds appears to be a single isomer (equation 242). Treatment of adducts 410 with dilute potassium hydroxide in methanol at room temperature gives the epoxy sulphoxides 411 (equation 243). The ease of this intramolecular displacement of chloride ion contrasts with a great difficulty in displacing chloride ion from chloromethyl phenyl sulphoxide by external nucleophiles . When chloromethyl methyl sulphoxide 412 is reacted with unsymmetrical ketones in the presence of potassium tcrt-butoxide in tert-butanol oxiranes are directly formed as a mixture of diastereoisomers (equation 244). a-Sulphinyl epoxides 413 rearrange to a-sulphinyl aldehydes 414 or ketones, which can be transformed by elimination of sulphenic acid into a, 8-unsaturated aldehydes or ketones (equation 245). The lithium salts (410a) of a-chloro-/ -hydroxyalkyl... 

Furthermore, an a,P-ethylenically unsaturated aldehyde together with organic amines will form intermediate products, which are further reacted with a carboxylic acid, an organic halide, or an epoxide-containing compound [ 1760]. The final products are suitable corrosion inhibitors for preventing corrosion of steel in contact with corrosive brine and oil and gas well fluids. 

Increasing use is being made of pyran syntheses based upon [4 + 2] cycloadditions of carbonyl compounds. The appropriate unsaturated aldehyde with ethyl vinyl ether yields 53 with peracids this affords an epoxide that undergoes ring contraction to the aldehyde 54 (Scheme 23) and rhodium catalyzed decarbonylation affords the required 3-alkylfuran with the optical center intact.116 Acetoxybutadiene derivatives add active carbonyl compounds giving pyrans that contract under the influence of acids to give... 

The formation of unsaturated cyanohydrins (from a, -unsaturated aldehydes) is of further advantage as these products possess an additional synthetic potential. As in the saturated cyanohydrins (above in Scheme 6) they possess the same opportunities for elaboration of the hydroxyl or nitrile moiety, although the presence of the carbon-carbon double bond offers the possibility for additional transformations to be performed such as additions [108], oxidative cleavage [117,118] and epoxidation [119] (Scheme 7). Thus, these highly functionalised chiral units can be of greater importance to an organic chemist. 

Miscellaneous Iminium Catalyzed Transformations The enantioselective construction of three-membered hetero- or carbocyclic ring systems is an important objective for practitioners of chemical synthesis in academic and industrial settings. To date, important advances have been made in the iminium activation realm, which enable asymmetric entry to a-formyl cyclopropanes and epoxides. In terms of cyclopropane synthesis, a new class of iminium catalyst has been introduced, providing the enantioselective stepwise [2 + 1] union of sulfonium ylides and ot,p-unsaturated aldehydes.As shown in Scheme 11.6a, the zwitterionic hydro-indoline-derived catalyst (19) enables both iminium geometry control and directed electrostatic activation of sulfonium ylides in proximity to the incipient iminium reaction partner. This combination of geometric and stereoelectronic effects has been proposed as being essential for enantio- and diastereocontrol in forming two of the three cyclopropyl bonds. 

The catalytic asymmetric epoxidation of a,p-unsaturated aldehydes has also been an important challenge in iminium catalysis and for chemical synthesis in general. More recently, Jprgensen and coworkers have developed an asymmetric organocatalytic approach to ot, (3-epoxy aldehydes using pyrrolidine catalyst 20 and H2O2 as the stoichiometric oxidant. The reaction appears to be extremely general and will likely receive wide attention from the chemical synthesis community (Scheme 11.6b). 

Fig. 8 Proposed catalytic cycle for the epoxidation of a 3-unsaturated aldehydes...

Scheme 36 Epoxidation of a, 3-unsaturated aldehydes using hydrogen peroxide as oxidant...

In conjunction with the chiral anion TRIP (156) (10 mol%), diamine 157 (10 mol%) can be used in the catalytic asymmetric epoxidation of a,p-unsaturated ketones (>90% ee) [196], while the secondary amine 158 (10 mol%) can be used for the epoxidation of both di- and trisubstituted a,P-unsaturated aldehydes (92-98% ee) (Fig. 15) [211], The facile nature of these reactions, using commercially available peroxides as the stoichiometric oxidant, together with the synthetic utility of the epoxide products suggests application in target oriented synthesis. 

The use of tartrate esters was an obvious place to start, especially since both enantiomers are readily available commercially and had already found widespread application in asymmetric synthesis (Figure 11) (e.g.. Sharpless asymmetric epoxidation).23.24 Reagents 36-38 are easily prepared and are reasonably enantioselective in reactions with achiral, unhindered aliphatic aldehydes (82-86% ee) typical results are given in Figure 12.3c,h Aromatic and a,p-unsaturated aldehydes, unfortunately, give lower levels of enantioselection (55-70% e.e.). It is also interesting to note that all other C2 symmetric diols that we have examined (2,3-butanediol, 2,4-pentanediol, 1,2-diisopropylethanediol, hydrobenzoin, and mannitol diacetonide, among others) are relatively ineffective in comparison to the tartrate esters (see Table ll).25... 

In a marked contrast to the lighter pnictogen (P, As, Sb) elements, this class of bismuth ylides readily undergoes Corey-Chaycovsky-type epoxidations with aromatic, aliphatic, and ot,(3-unsaturated aldehydes to afford the corresponding... 

During the past year, chloroperoxidase (CPO) was found to catalyze the smooth asymmetric epoxidation of functionalized cii-alkenes, such as the unsaturated ester 32. The reaction appears to be limited to 2-alkenes (i.e., methyl group on one side of the alkene), although some branching on the longer alkyl chain is tolerated. Allylic alcohols are oxidized to the corresponding unsaturated aldehydes but without epoxide formation <99TL1641>. 

Addition of l,3-bis(methylthio)allyllithium to aldehydes, ketones, and epoxides followed by mercuric ion-promoted hydrolysis furnishes hydroxyalkyl derivatives of acrolein5 that are otherwise available in lower yield by multistep procedures. For example, addition of 1,3-bis-(methylthio)allyllithium to acetone proceeds in 97% yield to give a tertiary alcohol that is hydrolyzed with mercuric chloride and calcium carbonate to saturated aldehyde.8 Similarly, addition of l,3-bis(methylthio)allyl-lithium to an epoxide, acetylation of the hydroxyl group, and hydrolysis with mercuric chloride and calcium carbonate provides a 5-acetoxy- raw.s-a,/9-unsaturated aldehyde,6 as indicated in Table I. Cyclic cis-epoxides give aldehydes in which the acetoxy group is trans to the 3-oxopropenyl group. 

This reaction was used to introduce the final two skeletal carbons in a total synthesis of maytansine (4).2 The reaction of the 2,/ -unsaturated aldehyde (2) with I (R = C6H5) gives the desired 4,5-unsaturated 3-hydroxy ester 3 in 80% yield. The ratio of the desired (S)-alcohol to the epimer is 93 7. The resulting amino acid was cyclized to the lactam in 80% yield with mesitylenesulfonyl chloride (8, 318-319). Epoxidation by the Sharpless procedure (9, 78 79) was also highly stereoselective, giving the desired epoxide and the undesired epimer in the ratio > 200 1. 

Asymmetric epoxidation of a,ft-unsaturated aldehydes, catalysed by 2-[bis-(3,5-bistrifluoromethylphenyl)trimethylsilanyloxymethyl]pyrrolidine (6), with hydrogen peroxide, in aqueous alcohol solutions, proceeds with moderate to high yields and... 

A novel formal inverse-electron-demand hetero-Diels-Alder reaction between 2-aryl-a,/3-unsaturated aldehydes and ketones produces dihydropyran derivatives stereo-specifically.161 The inverse-electron-demand Diels-Alder reaction of 3,4-r-butylthio-phene 1-oxide with electron-rich dienophiles shows vyn-jr-face and endo selectivity.162 (g) The inverse-electron-demand Diels-Alder reaction of dimethyl l,2,4,5-tetrazine-3,6-dicarboxylate with a variety of dienophiles produces phthalazine-type dihydrodiol and diol epoxides which were synthesized as possible carcinogens.163... 

A more exciting example is the epoxide 56 of natural a-pinene 55 that rearranges to the unsaturated aldehyde 57 in excellent yield.11 Epoxide opening to give the more substituted carbocation is followed by rearrangement 59 and then fragmentation 58. Note that the expansion of the strained four-membered ring is preferred to any alternatives. 

Chiral asymmetric epoxidations have been intensively investigated due to the fundamental importance of epoxides in organic chemistry [69, 70], Nevertheless, catalytic asymmetric Lewis acid epoxidation of a,/i-unsaturated aldehydes remains a challenge to chemists. Recently, Jorgensen and co-workers developed the first asymmetric approach to epoxides of enals, in which chiral pyrrolidine 11 was used as catalyst and H2O2 as oxidant, thus following the concept of iminium catalysis (Scheme 3.9) [71-73]. Importantly, reaction conditions are tolerant to a variety of functionalities and this chemical transformation proceeds in different solvents, with no loss of enantioselectivity. (For experimental details see Chapter 14.13.1). 

Aromatic, certain heteroaromatic, aliphatic and a,/ -unsaturated aldehydes could all be epoxidized in high enantio- and diastereoselectivity with moderate to good yields in reactions using sulfide 4 and the sodium salt of benzaldehyde tosylhy-drazone [29]. 

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