Why is epoxidation one of the most frequently used reactions in organic chemistry?

1 Answer
anor277
Dec 20, 2016

Well, you take an olefin, and make a three-membered ring...........

Explanation:

And from the three-membered epoxide ring, once ring-opened, you can get TWO functionalized sites.

And these days, epoxidation is not only highly chemically efficient and selective, it is increasingly highly stereochemically selective. Look up #"Sharpless peroxidation"#, which won for its inventor, Barry Sharpless, a Nobel prize in 2001.

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