Jacobsen‐Katsuki Epoxidation

Abstract

The Jacobsen and Katsuki have reported the improvement of olefin epoxidation, using a sophisticated chiral salen ligand for manganese complexes, which resulted in high enantioselectivity. They extensively studied different facets of this reaction to convert it into one of the most useful and widely applicable methods for the epoxidation of unfunctionalized olefins. Thus, this reaction is referred to as the Jacobsen‐Katsuki epoxidation. It is usually executed in dichloromethane or acetonitrile. The present study represents the features of the Jacobsen's catalysts and Katsuki's catalysts, which have been used in the epoxidation reaction. This reaction is a strongly electrophilic reaction and has been extended to occur in ionic liquid. This reaction has been used for the highly selective hydrolytic kinetic resolution of epoxides especially for the asymmetric epoxidation of olefins.