The UV irradiation of aliphaticalcohols gave α-glycols as the principal products. The values of the dl-α-glycol ratios obtained in each example were analyzed.
To find out whether the 1,4-addition to 1,2:3,4-diepoxides, which so far has been observed only once, is of a more general character, we investigated the reaction of a variety of O-, C-, N-, and S-nucleophiles with the model compound 1,2:3,4-diepoxy-2,3-dimethylbutane (Scheme 4). In several cases, 1,4-addition products could, indeed, be observed besides the expected 1,2-adducts (Table).