Vicinal epoxides

Diols, meso-, enzymic oxidation to y-lactones, 63, 14 DIOLS, VICINAL, EPOXIDES FROM, 63, 140 m-D1oxane, 2-(2-bromoethyD- [33884-43-4], 62, 148... 

Polymerization of vicinal epoxide groups with the aid of organic titanates [141]. 

The 1,2-epoxides, or vicinal epoxides, include the alkylene oxides, the simplest of which is ethylene oxide. The first reported polymerization of ethylene oxide was by Wurtz in 1863 (1), who described the reaction of ethylene oxide heated in a sealed tube with water and, later, with alkali and with zinc chloride catalysts. Seventy years later, the polymerization by a large number of catalysts, including alkali and alkaline earth metal oxides and carbonates, became one of the cornerstones in the development of the macromolecular hypothesis by Herman Staudinger (2). 

The following section describes the preparation of epoxides by the base promoted ring closure of vicinal halohydrms Because vicinal halohydrms are customarily prepared from alkenes (Section 6 17) both methods—epoxidation using peroxy acids and ring closure of halohydrms—are based on alkenes as the starting materials for preparing epoxides... 

The formation of vicinal halohydrms from alkenes was described m Section 6 17 Halo hydrins are readily converted to epoxides on treatment with base... 

Base promoted cyclization of vicinal halohydrms (Section 16 10) This reaction is an intramolecu lar version of the Williamson ether synthesis The alcohol function of a vicinal halohydrin is con verted to its conjugate base which then displa ces halide from the adjacent carbon to give an epoxide... 

Some instances of incomplete debromination of 5,6-dibromo compounds may be due to the presence of 5j5,6a-isomer of wrong stereochemistry for anti-coplanar elimination. The higher temperature afforded by replacing acetone with refluxing cyclohexanone has proved advantageous in some cases. There is evidence that both the zinc and lithium aluminum hydride reductions of vicinal dihalides also proceed faster with diaxial isomers (ref. 266, cf. ref. 215, p. 136, ref. 265). The chromous reduction of vicinal dihalides appears to involve free radical intermediates produced by one electron transfer, and is not stereospecific but favors tra 5-elimination in the case of vic-di-bromides. Chromous ion complexed with ethylene diamine is more reactive than the uncomplexed ion in reduction of -substituted halides and epoxides to olefins. ... 

Diethylaminosulfur trifluoride (DAST) reacts with epoxides to give com plex mixtures in which vicinal as difluorides, gemmal difluorides, and bis(2-fluoroalkyl) ethers are the mam components I6 (equations 16 and 17)... 

Epoxides are easily attacked by trifluoroacetic anhydride. The reactions lead to diesters of vicinal diols and monoesters of unsaturated allylic alcohols in ratios depending on the reaction conditions [24] (equation 13). 

Alkylation of enamines with epoxides or acetoxybromoalkanes provided intermediates for cyclic enol ethers (668) and branched chain sugars were obtained by enamine alkylation (669). Sodium enolates of vinylogous amides underwent carbon and nitrogen methylation (570), while vicinal endiamines formed bis-quaternary amonium salts (647). Reactions of enamines with a cyclopropenyl cation gave alkylated imonium products (57/), and 2-benzylidene-3-methylbenzothiazoline was shown to undergo enamine alkylation and acylation (572). A cyclic enamine was alkylated with methylbromoacetate and the product reduced with sodium borohydride to the key intermediate in a synthesis of the quebrachamine skeleton (57i). 

The 2,3-epoxy alcohols are often obtained in high optical purity (90% enantiomeric excess or higher), and are useful intermediates for further transformations. For example by nucleophilic ring opening the epoxide unit may be converted into an alcohol, a /3-hydroxy ether or a vicinal diol. 

Epoxides are cleaved by treatment with acid just as other ethers are, but under much milder conditions because of ring strain. As we saw in Section 7.8, dilute aqueous acid at room temperature is sufficient to cause the hydrolysis of epoxides to 1,2-diols, also called vicinal glycols. (The word vicinal means "adjacent/ and a glycol is a diol.) The epoxide cleavage takes place by SK2-like backside attack of a nucleophile on the protonated epoxide, giving a trans- 1,2-dio) as product. 

When asymmetric epoxidation of a diene is not feasible, an indirect route based on asymmetric dihydroxylation can be employed. The alkene is converted into the corresponding syn-diol with high enantioselectivity, and the diol is subsequently transformed into the corresponding trans-epoxide in a high-yielding one-pot procedure (Scheme 9.5) [20]. No cpirricrizalion occurs, and the procedure has successfully been applied to natural product syntheses when direct epoxidation strategies have failed [21]. Alternative methods for conversion of vicinal diols into epoxides have also been reported [22, 23]. 

Chiral epoxides and their corresponding vicinal diols are very important intermediates in asymmetric synthesis [163]. Chiral nonracemic epoxides can be obtained through asymmetric epoxidation using either chemical catalysts [164] or enzymes [165-167]. Biocatalytic epoxidations require sophisticated techniques and have thus far found limited application. An alternative approach is the asymmetric hydrolysis of racemic or meso-epoxides using transition-metal catalysts [168] or biocatalysts [169-174]. Epoxide hydrolases (EHs) (EC 3.3.2.3) catalyze the conversion of epoxides to their corresponding vicinal diols. EHs are cofactor-independent enzymes that are almost ubiquitous in nature. They are usually employed as whole cells or crude... 

In the latter example, the most slowly eliminated compounds were nonplanar, and lacked vicinal carbons in either the ortho-meta or the meta-para positions that were without any chlorine snbstitntion (i.e., there were no vicinal ortho-meta or meta-para positions that were snbstitnted solely with hydrogen). The more rapidly eliminated compounds all possessed vicinal ortho-meta positions that were without chlorine sub-stitntion. In the former example, the most persistent compound was nonplanar, and lacked carbons unsubstitnted by chlorine in the meta-para positions. Interestingly, both of the coplanar componnds were eliminated rapidly, even though one of them (3,3, 5,5 -TCB) lacked nnsnbstitnted vicinal carbons in either position. This suggests that P4501A1/1A2 was able to hydroxylate the molecule reasonably rapidly without any vicinal unsubstitnted carbons, presumably without the formation of an epoxide intermediate. 

The activities of both haloalkanol dehalogenase (halohydrin hydrogen lyase) that catalyzes the formation of epoxides from alkanes with vicinal hydroxyl and halogen groups, and epoxide hydrolase that brings about hydrolysis of epoxyalkanes to diols are involved in a number of degradations that involve their sequential operation. 

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