An efficient, metal-free catalytic system for the conversion of CO2 and epoxides to cyclic carbonates under mild conditions with good-to-excellent yields (57-99%) was developed. A possible reaction mechanism involving the electrophilic activation of epoxides by benzyl cations and nucleophilic activation of CO2 by DMF is proposed.

The HKR of racemic syn- or anti- alkoxy- and azido epoxides catalyzed by Co(salen) complex affords a practical access to a series of enantioenriched syn- or anti- alkoxy- and azido epoxides and the corresponding 1,2-diols. This strategy has been successfully employed in the concise, enantioselective synthesis of bioactive molecules such as (S,S)-reboxetine and (+)-epi-cytoxazone.

Three types of small ring compounds (epoxides, aziridines and cyclopropanes) can be synthesized stereoselectively via ylide route. Among them, the stereochemistry of vinyloxiranes, vinylaziridines, cyclopropylesters, amides and ketones can be tuned by the choice of reaction conditions and ylides with varying heteroatoms and ligands. Optically active epoxides and acetylenylaziridines can be prep...

[(Salcen)Cr(III) + Lewis base] was found to be a highly active and selective catalyst system in the [2+3] cycloaddition between epoxides and isocyanates to form 5-oxazolidinones. The reaction proceeds to high yield under mild reaction conditions and is applicable to a variety of terminal epoxides and aryl isocyanates.

Epoxide hydrolases play an important role in the biodegradation of organic compounds and are potentially useful in enantioselective biocatalysis. An analysis of various genomic databases revealed that about 20% of sequenced organisms contain one or more putative epoxide hydrolase genes. They were found in all domains of life, and many fungi and actinobacteria contain several putative epoxide hy...

A simple and efficient procedure for the rearrangement of substituted epoxides catalyzed by InCl3 has been developed. Aryl-substituted epoxides isomerize with complete regioselectivity to form a single carbonyl compound via cleavage of the benzylic C-O bond. The reactions are simple, fast, and high yielding. This procedure is very mild compared to those catalyzed with BF3 and other Lewis acids ...

Enantioselective desymmetrization of meso-aziridines and meso-epoxides with various nucleophiles by organocatalysis has emerged as a cutting-edge approach in recent years. This review summarizes the origin and recent developments of enantioselective desymmetrization of meso-aziridines and meso-epoxides in the presence of organocatalysts.

'K'-region epoxides have been detected as microsomal metabolites of the polycyclic hydrocarbons phenanthrene and benz[a]anthracene (Grover et al., 1971b), of pyrene and benzo[a]pyrene (Grover et al., 1972) and of 7,12-dimethylbenz[a]anthracene (Keysell et al., 1972). Synthetic 'K'-region epoxides have been found to possess biological activity as mutagens (Huberman et al., 1971; Cookson et al., ...

Metabolism of benzo[e]pyrene 9,10-dihydrodiol to the bay-region 9,10-diol-11,12-epoxides by hepatic microsomes from human, rat, mouse, guinea pig, hamster, and rabbit has been examined in the presence and absence of 7,8-benzoflavone. In the absence of 7,8-benzoflavone, the formation of bay-region diol epoxides from benzo[e]pyrene 9,10-dihydrodiol was low in all species except the hamster. With ...

poly (n-bromosuccinimide) (pnbs) as a mild, efficient, non-acidic, polymeric and heterogeneous catalyst was applied for simple conversion of epoxides into thiiranes by treatment with kscn or (nh2)2cs at room temperature. aliphatic and aromatic epoxides converted into their corresponding thiiranes under mild conditions. all reactions proceeded in short reaction times and afforded the correspondi...