Abstract
Dibutylstannylene acetals, particularly those derived from terminal diols, were found to be oxidized regiospeeifically to α-hydroxyketones in good to excellent yield by N-bromosuccinimide. One of the products, 3-deoxy-l,2-O-isopropylidene-α-D-erythro hexofuranos-5-ulose (8), exists to about 20% in solution as a mixture of dimers. One of the dimers can be obtained as a solid and its structure was determined tentatively by a combination of NMR experiments and MM3 molecular mechanics calculations.