Direct Epoxy Alcohol Synthesis from Cyclic Olefins Using O2 and VO(acac)2-AIBN Catalyst System

Article abstract of DOI:10.1021/jo01303a018

The vanadium-catalyzed oxidation of cyclic olefins with molecular oxygen is examined.The VO(acac)2-AIBN system is an efficient catalyst for epoxy alcohol synthesis.Chloro hydrocarbons such as 1,2-dichloroethane and 1,1,2-trichloroethane are suitable solvents for the epoxidation reaction.Cyclohexene (1), methylcyclohexene (2), and cyclododecene (5) give the corresponding epoxy alcohols in good yields; in the case of 2 with VO(acac)2-AIBN system, the selectivity to epoxy alcohol reaches over 70percent. 1,4-Cyclooctadiene (7) is oxidized to give 9-oxabicyclo<3.3.1>non-3-en-exo-2-ol (6a) via the rearrangement of cis-2,3-epoxycyclooct-4-en-1-ol.Exceptional is cyclooctene (4), which gives exclusively cyclooctene oxide (4b).