Vinylic epoxides

Allylic acetates are widely used. The oxidative addition of allylic acetates to Pd(0) is reversible, and their reaction must be carried out in the presence of bases. An important improvement in 7r-allylpalladium chemistry has been achieved by the introduction of allylic carbonates. Carbonates are highly reactive. More importantly, their reactions can be carried out under neutral con-ditions[13,14]. Also reactions of allylic carbamates[14], allyl aryl ethers[6,15], and vinyl epoxides[16,17] proceed under neutral conditions without addition of bases. 

Epoxidation of aldehydes and ketones is the most profound utility of the Corey-Chaykovsky reaction. As noted in section 1.1.1, for an a,P-unsaturated carbonyl compound, 1 adds preferentially to the olefin to provide the cyclopropane derivative. On the other hand, the more reactive 2 generally undergoes the methylene transfer to the carbonyl, giving rise to the corresponding epoxide. For instance, treatment of P-ionone (26) with 2, derived from trimethylsulfonium chloride and NaOH in the presence of a phase-transfer catalyst Et4BnNCl, gave rise to vinyl epoxide 27 exclusively. ... 

Due to the abundance of epoxides, they are ideal precursors for the preparation of P-amino alcohols. In one case, ring-opening of 2-methyl-oxirane (18) with methylamine resulted in l-methylamino-propan-2-ol (19), which was transformed to 1,2-dimethyl-aziridine (20) in 30-35% yield using the Wenker protocol. Interestingly, l-amino-3-buten-2-ol sulfate ester (23) was prepared from l-amino-3-buten-2-ol (22, a product of ammonia ring-opening of vinyl epoxide 21) and chlorosulfonic acid. Treatment of sulfate ester 23 with NaOH then led to aziridine 24. ... 

There have been two general approaches to the direct asymmetric epoxidation of carbonyl-containing compounds (Scheme 1.2) ylide-mediated epoxidation for the construction of aryl and vinyl epoxides, and a-halo enolate epoxidation (Darzens reaction) for the construction of epoxy esters, acids, amides, and sulfones. 

The Aggarwal group has used chiral sulfide 7, derived from camphorsulfonyl chloride, in asymmetric epoxidation [4]. Firstly, they prefonned the salt 8 from either the bromide or the alcohol, and then formed the ylide in the presence of a range of carbonyl compounds. This process proved effective for the synthesis of aryl-aryl, aryl-heteroaryl, aryl-alkyl, and aryl-vinyl epoxides (Table 1.2, Entries 1-5). 

Table 1.1 Synthesis of aryl-vinyl epoxides by use of chiral sulfide 1 a phosphazene base.

Until this work, the reactions between the benzyl sulfonium ylide and ketones to give trisubstituted epoxides had not previously been used in asymmetric sulfur ylide-mediated epoxidation. It was found that good selectivities were obtained with cyclic ketones (Entry 6), but lower diastereo- and enantioselectivities resulted with acyclic ketones (Entries 7 and 8), which still remain challenging substrates for sulfur ylide-mediated epoxidation. In addition they showed that aryl-vinyl epoxides could also be synthesized with the aid of a,P-unsaturated sulfonium salts lOa-b (Scheme 1.4). 

Scheme 9.32 Synthesis of (S)-ibuprofen (69) from vinyl-epoxide 70 Ar = 4- BuC6H4.

When the substrate is a vinylic epoxide, Grignard reagents generally give a... 

For a list of organometallic reagents that react with vinylic epoxides, with references, see Ref. 568, p. 123. 

The subsequent epoxidation of these in situ formed allylic tertiary alcohols yielded the corresponding syn-e oxy alcohols with high levels of diastereo- and enantioselectivity, thus providing a novel one-pot asymmetric synthesis of acyclic chiral epoxyalcohols via a domino vinylation epoxidation reaction (Scheme 4.17). ... 

Chloro-substituted [Ipc]2BH derivatives have proven useful for enantioselective synthesis of vinyl epoxides.62... 

Ir(cod)(PPh3(PhCN)]BF4 Hydrogenation of double bond of vinyl epoxides 736... 

The key to the success of the vinyl epoxide route would reside in a nucleophilic ring-opening of vinyl epoxide 75. If this ring-opening proceeds regioselectively at C5 via a SN2 pathway, it would have been the most welcome at this stage of our efforts (Scheme 8.21). However, an array of conditions, including Pd(0)-mediated and Lewis acidic conditions, were screened over a period of almost 2 years, but we never observed the desired 1,4-diol 80. Instead, we could at various times see small... 

Vinyl epoxides are highly useful synthetic intermediates. The epoxidation of dienes using Mn-salen type catalysts typically occurs at the civ-olefin. Epoxidations of dienes with sugar-derived dioxiranes have previously been reported to react at the trans-olefin of a diene. A new oxazolidinone-sugar dioxirane, 9, has been shown to epoxidize the civ-olefin of a diene <06AG(I)4475>. A variety of substitution on the diene is tolerated in the epoxidation, including aryl, alkyl and even an additional olefin. All of these substitutions provided moderate yields of the mono-epoxide with good enantioselectivity. 

Finally, chiral epoxides can be prepared from a,p-unsaturated carbonyl compounds through an entirely different approach, in which the epoxide oxygen is derived from the carbonyl moiety. For example, trans-aryl-vinyl epoxides 52 can be synthesized from conjugated aldehydes 50 and chiral sulfonium salts 51, with excellent ee s. The protocol is especially effective for substrates which bear a p-mcthoxy group on the aryl substituent <00TL7309>. 

Oxazolines can be obtained by the Lewis acid catalyzed epoxide ring opening of glycidic esters or amides (e.g., 118) with acetonitrile . Oxazolidines are available from the palladium-catalyzed cycloaddition of vinyl epoxides with imines <00H885> or the samarium-promoted reaction of ketimines (e.g., 120) with unfunctionalized... 

As we have seen earlier in this chapter, palladium is often employed to effect JV-alkylation of indoles. Trost and Molander found that indole reacts with vinyl epoxide 375 to give indole 376 [468]. The utility of such AZ-alkylations remains to be established. 

Coupling of vinyl epoxides with RSn(CH3)3.3 This palladium complex catalyzes 1,2- and 1,4-addition of organostannanes to vinyl epoxides to provide ho-moallylic or allylic alcohols, with the latter usually predominating. The presence of water increases the selectivity and the yields. 

The electrophilic addition of I2 to 2,3-allenols 340 in Et20 was highly regioselec-tive with respect to the terminal C=C bond, leading to the diiodination products 341 with a preponderance of the Z-isomer. The diiodide 341 may be further converted to trans/cis vinylic epoxide 342upon the treatment with a base (Scheme 10.137) [159]. 

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