Product Notes

Cyclohexene and 2-methyl-2-pentene were used as commercially available.. The amount of solvent used is not critical. Several experiments have been performed at higher and lower concentrations and in all cases the yields were very much alike.

Osmium tetroxide was supplied commercially in 1-g amounts in sealed glass ampuls. The procedure we describe below should be followed to prepare the osmium tetroxide catalyst solution. Work in a well-ventilated hood. One ampul is scored in the middle, broken open, and the two halves are dropped into a clean brown bottle containing 39.8 mL of reagent grade tert-butyl alcohol and 0.20 mL of 70 or 90% tert-butyl hydroperoxide. The bottle is capped (use caps with Teflon liners) and then swirled to ensure dissolution of the OsO4. Each milliliter of this stock solution contains 25 mg (ca. 0.1 mmol) of OsO4. These solutions are stored in the hood at room temperature and seem to be very stable. We have also prepared five times more dilute solutions of OsO4 in tert-butyl alcohol, which we use for small-scale experiments.

Cyclohexene and 2-methyl-2-pentene were used as commercially available.

The amount of solvent used is not critical. Several experiments have been performed at higher and lower concentrations and in all cases the yields were very much alike.