Asymmetric hydrophosphonylation of aldehydes catalyzed by bifunctional chiral Al(III) complexes

A new bifunctional chiral Al(III) complex of BINOL derivative, which contained tert-amine at 3,3′-position of the BINOL, has been developed for the effective enantioselective hydrophosphonylation of aldehydes. A variety of aromatic, heteroaromatic, condensed-ring, α,β-unsaturated, and aliphatic aldehydes were found to be suitable substrates for the reaction, and the desired α-hydroxy phosphonate were obtained in good to excellent yields (up to 99%) with moderate to good enantioselectivities (up to 87% ee) under mild conditions (at 0 °C). A possible catalytic cycle based on the experimental results was proposed.     

Highly efficient trialkylsilylcyanation of aldehydes, ketones and imines catalyzed by a nucleophilic N-heterocyclic carbene

The synthetic utility of N-heterocyclic carbenes was demonstrated by the trialkylsilylcyanation of aldehydes, ketones and imines. In the presence of a catalytic amount of 3a, the reactions with Me₃SiCN proceeded smoothly to give the corresponding cyanohydrin trimethylsilyl ethers or amino nitrile derivatives in good to excellent yields.     

Highly efficient and convenient asymmetric hydrosilylation of ketones catalyzed with zinc Schiff base complexes

Several chiral Schiff base ligands derived from α-amino acids were prepared, and zinc complexes with these chiral Schiff base ligands prepared were tested for the catalytic asymmetric hydrosilylation of ketones, and the results showed that excellent ee values were obtained, which are the prominent examples of catalytic asymmetric hydrosilylation of ketones catalyzed with zinc complexes in the presence of readily available and inexpensive α-amino acids based Schiff base ligands.     

Addition of alkynes to aldehydes and activated ketones catalyzed by rhodium-phosphine complexes

A mixture of 2-(di-tert-butylphosphino)biphenyl and dicarbonylacetonato rhodium(I) provides an effective catalyst system for the addition of alkynes to aldehydes and activated ketones. In contrast to the more common zinc-catalyzed processes, enolizable 1,2-dicarbonyls are excellent substrates for these rhodium-catalyzed additions. This reaction allows for the formation of propargylic alcohols under mild conditions, tolerating many functional groups (such as carboxylic acids) that are incompatible with other methods. Little selectivity was observed in cases of unsymmetrical 1,2-diketones. Addition of alkynes to aldehydes with an adjacent chirality center usually provides the Felkin addition product with excellent selectivity in some cases. Studies on the catalyst structure show that both the beta-diketonate and a carbon monoxide ligand appear to be bound to the active catalyst. The use of chiral phosphines to induce asymmetry in the propargyl alcohol products provided low enantioselectivity, which may be due to the phosphine having a distal relationship to the reacting centers. Modification of other ligands, such as the beta-diketonate, appears to be a more promising avenue for the development of an enantioselective variant.     

Highly enantioselective cyanosilylation of aldehydes catalyzed by novel beta-amino alcohol-titanium complexes

The beta-amino alcohol 1b-Ti(Oi-Pr)(4) complex has been shown to catalyze the enantioselective cyanosilylation of aldehydes efficiently. In the presence of 5 mol % of 1b-Ti(Oi-Pr)(4) complex catalyst, the aromatic, conjugated, heteroaromatic, and aliphatic aldehydes were converted to their corresponding trimethylsilyl ethers of cyanohydrins in 90-99% yields with up to 94% ee under mild conditions.     

Polymerization of styrene catalyzed by rare earth Schiff base complexes

The rare earth Schiff base complex Nd (H₂Salen)₂Cl₃·2C₂H₅OH was synthesized by a simple and convenient method and characterized by IR and elemental analysis. The catalyst system composed of Nd (H₂Salen)₂Cl₃·2C₂H₅OH/Al(i-Bu)₃/CCl₄ is effective for the polymerization of styrene (St). The optimum conditions are as follows: [St]/[Nd] = 1000, [CCl₄]/[Nd] = 9, [Al]/[Nd] = 30, and polymerization at 50°C for 20 h. The resulting polystyrene was characterized by NMR and GPC. The results of NMR show that the polymer obtained had a stereoregularity with 52.3% isotacticity and 47.7% syndiotacticity without any random structure. __________ Translated from Journal of Zhejiang University (Science Edition), 2007, 34(2): 189–196 [译自: 浙江大学学报(理学版)]     

Highly efficient dehydrogenation of secondary alcohols catalyzed by iridium-CNP complexes

A new highly practical method is presented for dehydrogenation of secondary alcohols to the corresponding ketones catalyzed by the iridium-CNP complexes. The reactions are compatible with substrates bearing diverse functional groups and proceed efficiently under mild conditions.     

Highly enantioselective phenylacetylene addition to aromatic ketones catalyzed by cinchona alkaloid-aluminum complexes

The catalytic asymmetric addition of phenylacetylene to aromatic ketones is reported. The catalyst, generated from commercially available Cinchona alkaloids and industrially available triethylaluminum, gives the expected tertiary alcohols with good enantiomeric excess (70-89%) and yields (60-83%). No previous case has been reported successfully using triethylaluminum as a Lewis acid in the asymmetric alkynylation of carbonylic derivatives, and thus we provide a new method to obtain optically active tertiary propargyl alcohols.     

稀土Schiff碱配合物催化烷基异氰酸酯室温聚合

利用Schiff碱稀土配合物Ln（H2Salen）2Cl3·2C2H5OH与AI（i—Bu）3组成的催化体系催化烷基异氰酸酯室温聚合,详细考察了催化剂组成以及聚合条件等对烷基异氰酸酯聚合的影响,并研究了己基异氰酸酯的聚合动力学．以La、Nd、Sm和Gd四种稀土元素为代表,合成了相应的Schiff碱配合物,结果表明轻稀土体系比重稀土体系好,La的聚合活性最高．在-40℃-40℃很宽的聚合温度范围内,可以得到分子量分布窄（MWD=1．50～2．40）的高分子量聚异氰酸酯,20℃为最佳的聚合温度．己基异氰酸酯的最佳聚合条件为：[AI]／[La]=30（摩尔比）,[n-HexNCO]／[La]=100,[n—HexNCO]=3．43mol／L,甲苯溶液中20℃聚合12h,聚合物收率74．0％,聚合物黏均分子量高达73．5×10^4,数均分子量40．2×10^4,MWD=1．79．聚合动力学研究表明己基异氰酸酯聚合反应对单体浓度和催化剂浓度都是一级关系,聚合反应活化能为43．64kJ／mol．     

Highly efficient cyclization of o-iodobenzoates with aldehydes catalyzed by cobalt bidentate phosphine complexes: a novel entry to chiral phthalides

Methyl 2-iodobenzoates 1 a-c undergo cyclization reactions with various aromatic aldehydes 2 a-m (RC6H4CHO: R=H 2 a, 4-CH3 2 b, 4-tBu 2 c, 4-OMe 2 d, 3-OMe 2 e, 4-Cl 2 f, 4-CF3 2 g, 4-CN 2 h, 4-Ph 2 i; benzo[d][1,3]dioxole-5-carbaldehyde (2 j), 1-napthaldehyde (2 k), benzofuran-2-carbaldehyde (2 l), and isonicotinaldehyde (2 m)) in the presence of [CoI2(dppe)] (dppe=1,2-bis(diphenylphosphino)ethane) and Zn powder in dry THF at 75 degrees C for 24 h to give the corresponding phthalide derivatives 3 a-m and 3 q-t in good to excellent yields. Under similar reaction conditions, less reactive aliphatic aldehydes, heptanal (2 n), butyraldehyde (2 o), and 2-phenylacetaldehyde (2 p) also underwent cyclization reactions with 1 a to provide 3 n-p, respectively, in fair to good yields. The catalytic reaction can be further extended to cinnamyl aldehyde (2 q) with 1 a to give the corresponding phthalide derivative 3 u. This synthetic method is compatible with a variety of functional groups on the aryl ring of 2. The high efficiency of the cobalt catalyst containing a dppe (dppe=1,2-bis(diphenylphosphino)ethane) ligand encouraged us to investigate the asymmetric version of the present catalytic reaction by employing bidentate chiral ligands. Thus, aromatic aldehydes 2 a-c, 2 f, and 2 g undergo cyclization with 2-iodobenzoate (1 a) smoothly in the presence of [CoI2{(S,S)-dipamp}] ((S,S)-dipamp=(1S,2S)-(+)-bis[2-methoxyphenyl]phenylphosphino)ethane) and zinc powder in THF at 75 degrees C for 24 h, giving the corresponding (S)-phthalides 4 a-e in 81-89% yields with 70-98% ee. A possible mechanism for the present catalytic reaction is proposed.     

Room temperature polymerization of alkyl isocyanates catalyzed by rare earth Schiff base complexes

The polymerization of alkyl isocyanates catalyzed by rare earth chloride salen complexes/triisobutyl aluminum (Ln(H₂salen)₂Cl₃·2C₂H₇OH/Al(i-Bu)₃) at room temperature was investigated. The influences of ligand structure, catalyst composition, polymerization temperature, polymerization time, the concentration of catalyst and monomer, and the polymerization solvent on the polymerization of isocyanates were studied. It was found that under the polymerization conditions, examined La(H₂salen_A)₂Cl₃·2C₂-H₇OH/Al(i-Bu)₃ (H₂salen_A= N,N′-disalicylideneethylene diamine) is a fairly high efficient catalyst for the polymerization of n-hexyl isocyanate (n-HexNCO) to prepare high molecular weight poly(n-hexyl isocyanate) (PHNCO) with narrower molecular weight distribution at room temperature. PHNCO could be prepared with yield of 74.0%, number-average molecular weight (M _n) of 40.20×10⁴ and MWD of 1.79 under the following optimum conditions: [Al]/[La] = 30 (molar ratio), [n-HexNCO]/[La] = 100 (molar ratio), [n-HexNCO] = 3.43 mol/L polymerization at 20°C for 12 h in toluene. In the same polymerization conditions, poly (n-octyl isocyanate) (PONCO) with yield of 67.3%, and poly(n-butyl isocyanate) (PBNCO) with yield of 45.5%, could be prepared respectively. The kinetics of the polymerization of n-HexNCO was also investigated and found to be first-order with respect to both monomer and catalyst concentrations.     

Chiral N,N′-dioxide-Yb(III) complexes catalyzed enantioselective hydrophosphonylation of aldehydes

Chiral N,N′-dioxide-Ytterbium(III) complexes promoted the asymmetric addition of diethyl phosphate to aldehydes, giving the corresponding products with good yields and enantioselectivities. The addition of pyridine favored both reactivity and enantioselectivity. A possible catalytic cycle was proposed to explain the mechanism of the asymmetric hydrophosphonylation of aldehydes.     

Highly diastereo- and enantioselective direct aldol reactions of aldehydes and ketones catalyzed by siloxyproline in the presence of water

Proline-based organocatalysts have been developed for a highly enantioselective, direct aldol reaction of aldehydes and ketones in the presence of water. While several surfactant-proline combined catalysts have proved effective, proline derivatives with a hydrophobic moiety such as trans-siloxy-L-proline and cis-siloxy-D-proline, both of which are easily prepared from the same commercially available 4-hydroxy-L-proline, have been found to be the most effective organocatalysts examined in this study, affording the aldol product with excellent diastereo- and enantioselectivities, these two catalysts generating opposite enantiomers. Water affects the selectivity, and poor results are obtained under neat reaction conditions or in dry organic solvents. More than three equivalents of water are required for the best diastereo- and enantioselectivities, while three equivalents is the recommended amount from a synthetic point of view. The reaction proceeds in the organic phase, and also proceeds in the presence of a large amount of water. The large-scale preparation of aldols with the minimal use of an organic solvent, including in the purification step, is described.     

Transfer hydrogenation of ketones catalyzed by ruthenium complexes

Oxidation of 1,3,5- and 1,2,4-trimethylbenzenes using heteropoly vanadomolybdate as catalyst in the presence of hydrogen peroxide under homogeneous conditions has been investigated. Phenol formation in the case of 1,2,4-trimethylbenzene and only side chain oxidation in the case 1,3,5-trimethylbenzene were observed. This behavior is explained in terms of the charge densities on different centers of both substrate molecules calculated by the MNDO method.