One-pot synthesis of epoxides from benzyl alcohols and aldehydes

A one-pot synthesis of epoxides from commercially available benzyl alcohols and aldehydes is described. The reaction proceeds through in situ generation of sulfonium salts from benzyl alcohols and their subsequent deprotonation for use in Corey–Chaykovsky epoxidation of aldehydes. The generality of the method is exemplified by the synthesis of 34 epoxides that were made from an array of electronically and sterically varied alcohols and aldehydes.

Coordination polymers with free Brønsted acid sites for selective catalysis

The Cu(ii) coordination polymers with free –COOH groups as Brønsted acid sites show high activity and regioselectivity in catalyzing epoxide ring-opening reactions.

New design of shape memory polymers based on natural rubber crosslinked via oxa-Michael reaction

Shape memory polymers (SMPs) based on natural rubber were fabricated by crosslinking epoxidized natural rubber with zinc diacrylate (ZDA) using the oxa-Michael reaction. These SMPs possessed excellent shape fixity and recovery. The glass transition largely accounted for the fixing of the SMPs temporary shape. Increasing the ZDA content allowed the trigger temperature (20-46 °C) and recovery time (14-33 s) of the SMPs to be continuously tuned. Nanosized silica (nanosilica) was incorporated into the neat polymers to further increase the flexibility and tune the recovery stress. The nanosilica-SMPs exhibited exceptionally high strength in a rubbery state (>20 MPa). The nanosilica-SMPs exhibited high transparency, making them suitable in visible heat-shrinkable tubes.

Solvent-free acid-catalyzed ring-opening of epoxidized oleochemicals using stearates/stearic acid, and its applications

Toxic solvent and strong acid catalysts causing environmental issues have been mainly used for ring-opening of epoxidized oleochemicals. Here, we demonstrated that magnesium stearate (Mg-stearate) was a high efficient catalyst for solvent-free ring-opening of epoxidized methyl oleate, a model compound of midchain epoxide. Mg-stearate resulted in the highest yield (95%) and conversion rate (99%) toward midchain alkoxyesters under the same conditions (160 °C, 12 h) superior to other fatty acid derivatives such as a Lewis acid (lithium and sodium stearate) and Brønsted acid (stearic acid). Based on this chemical study, we synthesized biogrease and thermoplastic using epoxidized soybean oil (ESO) and Mg-stearate via one-pot, solvent-free, and purification-free process. Mg-stearate played a significant role as a reactant for epoxide ring-opening and as a thickener when excess loading rate was used; viscosity increased from 1800 to 4500 Pa·s at 25 °C when ESO:Mg-stearate increased from 1:1 equiv to 1:2, then behaved like thermoplastics (T(g) = -27 °C, T(m) = 90 °C) with 1:4.

Regiodivergent epoxide opening: a concept in stereoselective catalysis beyond classical kinetic resolutions and desymmetrizations

An approach to highly regiodivergent epoxide openings (REOs) is presented. The very popular kinetic resolutions of epoxides and openings of meso-epoxides constitute subclasses of such REOs. REOs are attractive for parallel resolutions, double asymmetric reactions of enantiomerically enriched epoxides, and for semisynthetic applications in the functionalization of natural products. They have been notoriously difficult to realize by means of SN2 mechanisms. Our titanocene-catalyzed radical REO addresses this issue by decoupling epoxide opening and radical trapping and is firmly based on a mechanistic study of the reductive epoxide opening.

Ring-Expanding Olefin Metathesis: A Route to Highly Active Unsymmetrical Macrocyclic Oligomeric Co-Salen Catalysts for the Hydrolytic Kinetic Resolution of Epoxides

In the presence of the third generation Grubbs catalyst, the ring-expanding olefin metathesis of a monocyclooct-4-en-1-yl functionalized salen ligand and the corresponding Co(II)(salen) complex at low monomer concentrations results in the exclusive formation of macrocyclic oligomeric structures with the salen moieties being attached in an unsymmetrical, flexible, pendent manner. The TOF-MALDI mass spectrometry reveals that the resulting macrocyclic oligomers consist predominantly of dimeric to tetrameric species, with detectable traces of higher homologues up to a decamer. Upon activation under aerobic and acidic conditions, these Co(salen) macrocycles exhibit extremely high reactivities and selectivities in the hydrolytic kinetic resolution (HKR) of a variety of racemic terminal epoxides under neat conditions with very low catalyst loadings. The excellent catalytic properties can be explained in terms of the new catalyst's appealing structural features, namely, the flexible oligomer backbone, the unsymmetrical pendent immobilization motif of the catalytic sites, and the high local concentration of Co(salen) species resulting from the macrocyclic framework. This ring-expanding olefin metathesis is suggested to be a simple way to prepare tethered metal complexes that are endowed with key features--(i) a high local concentration of metal complexes and (ii) a flexible, single point of attachment to the support--that facilitate rapid and efficient catalysis when a bimetallic transition state is required.

Diastereoselective epoxidation of oxazolidine-substituted alkenes by dimethyldioxirane and m-chloroperbenzoic acid: pi-facial control through hydrogen bonding by the urea functionality

[figure: see text] A high diastereoselectivity (up to > 98:2) is found for the DMD and m-CPBA epoxidations of chiral oxazolidine-substituted olefins with a urea group. The selectivity is explained in terms of hydrogen bonding between the remote NH group of the urea functionality and the epoxidizing reagent. Methylation of the NH group prohibits hydrogen bonding, and a reversed selectivity is observed due to steric repulsion between the reagent and the urea functionality.

Theoretical study of activation of oxirane by bidentate acids

The reaction of oxirane with amines in the presence of some bidentate and monodentate Bronsted acids has been studied theoretically by taking some simplified reaction models. Acids have been shown to serve as temporary reservoirs of electronic charge during the reaction to strengthen the nucleophilicity of the substrate. The shift of electronic charges and enhancement of the nucleophilicity of oxirane have been represented by means of paired interaction orbitals and projected reactive orbitals. The reason the transition state appears at an earlier stage in the reaction catalyzed by 1,8-biphenylenediol relative to the reactions catalyzed by monodentate phenols and alcohols has been clarified.