Titanium-catalyzed diastereoselective epoxidations of ene diols and allylic alcohols with beta-hydroperoxy alcohols as novel oxygen donors

beta-Hydroperoxy alcohols 1-4 serve as effective tridentate oxygen donors for the highly diastereoselective, titanium-catalyzed epoxidation of ene diols 5a-e. Thus, in contrast to the bidentate tert-butyl hydroperoxide, the usual oxygen donor employed in Sharpless-type epoxidations and known to work poorly for polyhydroxy substrates, the tridentate beta-hydroperoxy alcohols efficiently replace the tridentate epoxy diol products 6a-e in the titanium template and thereby the catalytic cycle is sustained by replenishing with efficacy the loaded complex necessary for the oxygen transfer. Irrespective of the substitution pattern of the double bond or the configuration (erythro versus threo) of the diol functionalities in the ene diol substrate, high diastereoselectivities are observed for the epoxy diol products. The high stereochemical control is due to the rigid transition state for the oxygen transfer, which is imposed by the multiple titanium-oxygen bonding and coordination in the titanium template. The observed erythro selectivity for the ene diol derives from the additional bonding of its homoallylic hydroxy group to the titanium center, which fixes the substrate conformation in such a way that the oxygen atom to be transferred approaches from the side of the allylic oxygen functionality (cf. loaded complex A). This additional binding of the bidentate ene diol in the titanium template is also manifested in the enhanced reactivity of the ene diol versus the monodentate allylic alcohols. Nevertheless, the less reactive allylic alcohols also display a high erythro selectivity, provided these monodentate substrates possess 1,2-allylic strain. For the first time a direct, diastereoselective, and catalytic epoxidation of ene diols has been made available for synthetic applications, without recourse to protection group methodology.