Construction and probing of multisite chiral catalysts: dendrimer fixation of c2-symmetrical diphosphinerhodium complexes

A series of chiral phosphine-functionalized poly(propyleneimine) (PPI) dendrimers was synthesized by the reaction of carboxyl-linked C(2)-chiral pyrphos ligand (pyrphos=3,4-bis(diphenylphosphino)pyrrolidine) with zeroth-fourth generation PPI using ethyl-N,N-dimethylaminopropylcarbodiimide (EDC)/1-hydroxybenzotriazol as a coupling reagent. The dendrimers obtained were characterized by NMR spectroscopy and elemental analysis as well as FAB and MALDI-TOF mass spectrometry, which established their molecular masses of up to 20 700 amu. Metalation of the multi-site phosphines with Rh(COD)(2)]BF(4) cleanly yielded the cationic rhododendrimers containing up to 32 metal centers (for the fourth generation species), representing the largest chiral phosphine dendrimer catalyst studied to date. The complete metalation of the chiral phosphine sites was demonstrated by (31)P NMR spectroscopy and the observation of the coordination-shifted AB part of the ABX spin system (delta(A)=33.9, delta(B)=32.9; (1)J(Rh,P)=150, 153 Hz; (2)J(P,P)=28 Hz). The relationship between the size/generation of the dendrimer and its catalytic properties was established in the asymmetric hydrogenation of Z-methyl-alpha-acetamidocinammate and dimethyl itaconate. A decrease in both activity and selectivity of the dendrimer catalysts was observed on going to the higher generations.