Enantioselective reduction of ketophosphonates using chiral acid adducts with sodium borohydride

A method for asymmetric reduction of α-and β-ketophosphonates using a chiral complex prepared from sodium borohydride and D-or L-tartaric acid is developed. Reduction of α-or β-ketophosphonates by these reagents led to formation of corresponding (S)-or (R)-hydroxyphosphonates. Reduction of chiral di(1R,2S,5R)-menthylketophosphonates by the chiral complex NaBH₄/(R,R)-tartaric acid due to the dual compliant asymmetric induction resulted in increased stereoselectivity of the reaction and led to formation of the hydroxyphosphonates with ee 90% or higher. On the other hand, reduction of di(1R,2S,5R)-methylketophosphonates by the chiral complex NaBH₄/(S,S)-tartaric acid proceeded as non-compliant dual asymmetric induction and resulted in decreased reaction stereoselectivity leading to formation of hydroxyphosphonates with ～45–60% ee. The developed methodology was applied to the synthesis of (R)-phosphocarnitine in multigram amounts.