Regio‐ and Stereoselectivity of the SiO2‐Catalyzed Reaction of Thiocamphor (=1,7,7‐Trimethylbicyclo[2.2.1]heptane‐2‐thione) with Optically Active Monosubstituted Oxiranes

Abstract

AbstractThe reactions of the enolizable thioketone (1R,4R)‐thiocamphor (=(1R,4R)‐1,7,7‐trimethylbicyclo[2.2.1]heptane‐2‐thione; 1) with (S)‐2‐methyloxirane (2) in the presence of a Lewis acid such as SnCl4 or SiO2 in anhydrous CH2Cl2 led to two diastereoisomeric spirocyclic 1,3‐oxathiolanes 3 and 4 with the Me group at C(5′), as well as the isomeric β‐hydroxy thioether 5 (Scheme 2). The analogous reactions of 1 with (RS)‐, (R)‐, and (S)‐2‐phenyloxirane (7) yielded two isomeric spirocyclic 1,3‐oxathiolanes 8 and 9 with Ph at C(4′), an additional isomer 13 bearing the Ph group at C(5′), and three isomeric β‐hydroxy thioethers 10, 11, and 12 (Scheme 4). In the presence of HCl, the β‐hydroxy thioethers 5, 10, 11, and 12 isomerized to the corresponding 1,3‐oxathiolanes 3 and 4 (Scheme 3), and 8, 9, and 13, respectively (Scheme 5). Under similar conditions, an epimerization of 3, 8, and 9 occurred to yield the corresponding diastereoisomers 4, 14, and 15, respectively (Schemes 3 and 6). The structures of 9 and 15 were confirmed by X‐ray crystallography (Figs. 1 and 2). These results show that the Lewis acid‐catalyzed addition of oxiranes to enolizable thioketones proceeds with high regio‐ and stereoselectivity via an Sn2‐type mechanism.