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BUCHALSKA AND PLENKIEWICZ
For example, some alkoxyamino groups are known as common
fragments of the semisynthetic cephalosporin antibiotics of the second
and third generation, such as: cefmenoxime, ceftriaxone, cefuroxime, cefta-
zidime, or of a synthetic monobactam antibiotic aztreonam.[1] However,
none of the known antibiotic molecules contains a b-aminooxy alcohol
fragment and to the best of our knowledge optically active b-aminooxy
alcohols have been described only by us.[2,3]
In the research on a lipase-catalyzed kinetic separation of the
enantiomers of b-aminooxy alcohols we were looking for a suitable protec-
tion of the amino function. In the preliminary experiments the protection
by the phthaloyl and iso-propylidene groups was investigated.[2] Simple
protection and deprotection procedures and very low cost of the substrates
were considered as the main advantages of these groups. However, when
some popular commercial lipase preparations were used in the experiments,
the optical purities of the separated enantiomers were not always
satisfactory. For that reason we decided to investigate the lipase-catalyzed
kinetic resolution of some b-aminooxy alcohols with their amino function
protected with the tert-butylcarbamate group. According to the litera-
ture,[4,5] tert-butyl N-hydroxycarbamate (2) can be easily prepared from
hydroxylamine and tert-butoxycarbonyl azide. When the commercially
available di-tert-butyl dicarbonate was used instead of the azide, the yield
of 2 was by almost 20% higher. In the second step the prepared carbamate
was made to react with some epoxides. As it is known,[6] the acylation or
alkoxycarbonylation of hydroxylamine occurs at the nitrogen atom.
However, further reaction with a mono-N-substituted hydroxylamine
takes place either on the hydroxyl group if the N-substituent is electron-
withdrawing or on the nitrogen atom if the substituent has the electron-
donating properties. The reactions of monosubstituted epoxides with
stoichiometric amounts of the potassium salt of tert-butyl N-hydroxycarba-
mate were carried out at room temperature in an ethanol solution to yield
the appropriate 1,2-diols with a carbamoyl-protected primary hydroxy
group and a free secondary hydroxy group (Scheme 1).
The yields and properties of the prepared tert-butyl carbamates of
1
the general formula 3 as well as their H NMR and IR spectral data are
presented in Table 1.