Isolation of racemic 2,4-pentanediol and 2,5-hexanediol from commercial mixtures of racemic and meso isomers by way of cyclic sulfites.

Enantiomerically pure diols with C₂ symmetry such as 23-butanediol, 1, 2,4-pentanediol, 2, and 2,5-hexanediol, 3, are useful chiral auxiliaries, but they are expensive because chemists lack good synthetic routes that eliminate both the meso isomer and one enantiomer. Enzymic resolutions efficiently separate the enantiomer, but do not remove the meso isomer. To simplify enzymic resolutions of 2 and 3, we developed simple methods to isolate the racemic isomer from commercial mixtures of racemic and meso isomers. For 2, the meso isomer selectively reacted with SOCl₂ to give a cyclic sulfite that was removed by column chromatography to leave (±)-2,92% de, 1.4 g, 55% yield. For 3, both meso and racemic isomers reacted with SOCl₂ to give cyclic sulfites, but the sulfite derived from the meso isomer rearranged to trans-2,5-dimethyltetrahydrofuran under acidic conditions. Hydrolysis of the remaining sulfite gave (±)-3,84% de, 1.1 g, 37% yield. Resolution of (±)-2 and (±)-3 using lipase from Pseudomonas cepacia yielded (2R,4R)-2-diacetate, 78% ee, > 97% de.40% of theory and(2R,5R)-3-diacetate, 94% ee. > 97% de, 47% of theory. Previously reported acetylations of 2 and 3 by lipase from Candida antarctica (CAL) or by lipase from Pseudomonas sp. (Amano lipase AK) are more enantioselective and thus, the best route to enantiomerically and diastereomerically pure 2 and 3 is removal of the meso isomer by way of cyclic sulfites followed by resolution with CAL or Amano lipase AK,.