Epoxidation with In Situ Prepared Manganese Based Homogeneous Catalysts

In the past 15 years considerable progress has been made in the field of homogeneous catalyzed epoxidations of unfunctionalized olefins. Epoxidation is an important methodology for preparation of highly functionalized organic compounds; optically active epoxides especially are important intermediates. From many olefins it is now possible to create in only one step optically active epoxides in nearly enantiomerically pure form. A few systems have been shown to be extremely useful in this field, and have reached the stage of synthetic applicability. These were discussed in chapter 1. As mentioned in chapter 1, for industrial purposes, manganese catalysts are preferred since manganese itself is a relatively non-toxic metal. Iron can also be considered but manganese complexes are superior so far in selective epoxidation of olefins, chiefly because they show fewer side reactions than iron complexes. The synthesis of most ligands used in the catalytic epoxidation reactions discussed here is described in chapter 2. The structure and properties of the manganese complexes used in catalytic experiments were described in chapter 3.