Highly enantioselective catalytic asymmetric epoxidation of α,β-unsaturatedcarboxylic acid imidazolides and simple amides was developed. In the presence of 5–10 mol% of lanthanide–BINOL complexes, the reaction proceeded smoothly with high substrate generality. In particular, in the cases of α,β-unsaturated amides, there was nearly perfect enantioselectivity (>99% ee). The corresponding epoxides were
Catalytic Asymmetric Epoxidation of α,β-Unsaturated Amides: Efficient Synthesis of β-Aryl α-Hydroxy Amides Using a One-Pot Tandem Catalytic Asymmetric Epoxidation−Pd-Catalyzed Epoxide Opening Process
catalytic asymmetric epoxidation of alpha,beta-unsaturated amides using Sm-BINOL-Ph3As=O complex was succeeded. Using 5-10 mol % of the asymmetric catalyst, a variety of amides were epoxidized efficiently, yielding the corresponding alpha,beta-epoxy amides in up to 99% yield and in more than 99% ee. Moreover, the novel one-pot tandem process, one-pot tandem catalytic asymmetric epoxidation-Pd-catalyzed epoxide