Reactions of Various Nucleophiles with d-Glucal over Keggin-Type Heteropoly Compounds: A Simple, Rapid, and Expedient Method for the Synthesis of Pseudoglycals

The reaction of benzyl alcohol with 3,4,6-tri-O-acetyl-d-glucal has been investigated with several heteropoly compounds, and the optimal catalyst is 12-tungstophosphoric acid supported on carbon. In the presence of this catalyst, various alcohols gave the corresponding alkyl and aryl 2,3-unsaturated glycopyranosides in excellent yields and good anomeric selectivity under solvent-free condition. 4,6-Di-O-acetyl-2,3-dideoxy--d-erythro-hex-2-enopyranosyl cyanide and ethyl 4,6-di-O-acetyl-2,3-dideoxy-1-thio--d-erythro-hex-2-enopyranoside have also been prepared with trimethylsilyl cyanide and ethanthiol as nucleophiles, respectively. The catalyst could be easily recovered and reused several times with slight loss of activity. The selectivity to give -anomers predominantly did not show any change in all runs.