Highly enantioselective direct alkylation of arylacetic acids with chiral lithium amides as traceless auxiliaries

A direct, highly enantioselective alkylation of arylacetic acids via enediolates using a readily available chiral lithium amide as a stereodirecting reagent has been developed. This approach circumvents the traditional attachment and removal of chiral auxiliaries used currently for this type of transformation. The protocol is operationally simple, and the chiral reagent is readily recoverable.     

Trifluoromethylated amino alcohols as chiral ligands for highly enantioselective Reformatsky reaction

The enantioselective Reformatsky reaction of PhCHO was achieved by the use of trifluoromethylated amino alcohols as chiral ligands to afford the corresponding optically active β-hydroxy ester with up to 90% ee.     

Highly enantioselective nickel-catalyzed hydrovinylation with chiral phosphoramidite ligands

Readily available chiral phosphoramidites are a promising class of ligands for nickel-catalyzed asymmetric hydrovinylation of vinyl arenes. Cooperative effects are operative when ligands with more than one element of chirality are used. Choosing the proper stereochemistry in each part of the modular ligand system leads to high chemoselectivities and excellent enantioselectivities up to 94%. Moreover, the catalysts derived from these ligands proved extremely efficient and remarkably robust performing up to 8300 catalytic turnovers at an initial turnover frequency beyond 1000 h-1. The large potential for structural variation and their straightforward synthesis make the phosphoramidites currently the best lead structure for catalyst development in this field.     

Catalytic enantioselective protonation of lithium enolates with chiral imides

The catalytic enantioselective protonation of simple enolates was achieved using a catalytic amount of chiral imides and stoichiometric amount of achiral proton sources. Among the achiral proton sources examined in the protonation of the lithium enolate of 2,2,6-trimethylcyclohexanone catalyzed by (S,S)-imide 1, 2, 6-di-tert-butyl-p-cresol (BHT) and its derivatives gave the highest enantiomeric excess. For example, 90% ee of (R)-enriched ketone was obtained when (S,S)-imide 1 (0.1 equiv) and BHT (1 equiv) were used. Use of 0.01 equiv of the chiral catalyst still caused a high level of asymmetric induction. For catalytic protonation of the lithium enolate of 2-methylcyclohexanone, chiral imide 6 possessing a chiral amide portion was superior to (S,S)-imide 1 as a chiral proton source and the enolate was effectively protonated with up to 82% ee.     

Tunable chiral monophosphines as ligands in enantioselective rhodium-catalyzed ring-opening of oxabenzonorbornadienes with amines

A new tunable chiral monophosphine was used as a ligand for asymmetric rhodium-catalyzed ring-opening of oxabenzonorbornadiene with amines, providing a series of chiral ring-opened products in high yields (up to 97%) and with high enantioselectivities (>99%).The reaction can be performed at rt to obtain the desired product with high enantioselectivity.     

Atropisomeric amides as chiral ligands: using (-)-sparteine-directed enantioselective silylation to control the conformation of a stereogenic axis

An enantiomerically pure (1-trimethylsilyl)ethyl group, constructed by a (-)-sparteine-directed enantioselective quench of a laterally lithiated tertiary aromatic amide, exerts powerful thermodynamic control over the conformation of the adjacent tertiary amide substituent. Ortholithiation and functionalization of the amide in the 6-position allows the single amide conformer to be trapped as an enantiomerically and diastereoisomerically pure amide atropisomer. Protodesilylation of the amide gives functionalized atropisomeric amides with a stereogenic axis of single absolute configuration, whose barriers to racemization have been determined by polarimetry. Enantiomerically pure amides bearing phosphine substituents are effective ligands in a Pd-catalyzed allylic substitution reaction-the first use of a nonbiaryl atropisomer as a chiral ligand-and give products with 90% ee. The rate of racemization of the phosphine-substituted amide is powerfully influenced by the presence of palladium.     

Enantioselective butylation of aliphatic aldehydes by mixed chiral lithium amide/n-BuLi dimers

The enantioselective butylation of aliphatic aldehydes with mixtures of n-butyllithium and chiral lithium amides in a diethyl ether–dimethoxymethane solvent mixture is described. Enantiomeric excesses ranging from 91 to 98.5% were observed for several aliphatic alcohols. The asymmetric butylation of the prochiral aldehydes proceeds much faster by the mixed lithium amide/n-BuLi complexes than by tetrameric n-BuLi.     

A computational study of the enantioselective addition of n-BuLi to benzaldehyde in the presence of a chiral lithium N,P amide

In the presence of a chiral lithium N,P amide, alkylation of benzaldehyde results in an enantioselective formation of 1-phenyl-pentanol. This stereoselective addition reaction has herein been studied using dispersion-corrected density functional theory. For five different chiral ligands originating from amino acids the resulting enantioselectivity has been computationally determined and compared with experimentally available enantiomeric ratios (e.r.). In all cases the experimentally preferred enantiomer could be reproduced by the computational model. The selectivity trend among the ligands was found strongly sensitive to the amount of dispersion correction included. The origin of selectivity in the alkylation reaction is found to be composed of many combined interactions. For the most selective ligand 2A the most important factors found, which are favouring the (R)-TS, are a CH-π interaction between benzaldehyde-dimethyl ether (DME), stronger Li-solvation, and Li-π interactions with the phenyl ring in the backbone of the chiral lithium N,P amide. In addition, solvation by the bulk solvent and the size of the substituent on the nitrogen are also found important factors for the enantioselectivity.     

New enantioselective chiral imidazolidine ligands for Pd-catalyzed asymmetric allylic alkylation

Chiral imidazolidine ligands have been synthesized from N,N′-dialkylated cyclohexanediamine derivatives and they were found to act as effective ligands in the palladium-catalyzed asymmetric allylic substitution. The excellent levels of enantiomeric excess up to 98% were obtained in high yield.     

Synthesis of chiral titanium-containing phosphinoamide ligands for enantioselective heterobimetallic catalysis

The synthesis of six chiral titanium-containing phosphinoamide ligands is discussed. These ligands assemble chiral heterobimetallic Pd–Ti complexes, enable enantioselective intramolecular allylic aminations with hindered amine nucleophiles and achieve selectivity up to 53% ee. Mechanistic studies demonstrate the reversibility of the enantio-determining C–N bond forming step, which leads to a gradual increase in the % ee of the reaction over time. These results represent a rare example of enantioselective heterobimetallic catalysis and suggest that these new ligands could find broad application in enantioselective transition metal catalysis.     

Synthesis of chiral sulfinamido-sulfonamides and their evaluation as ligands for the enantioselective ethylation of aldehydes

A family of chiral sulfinamido-sulfonamide ligands have been synthesized from sulfinimines and has been evaluated as ligands for the enantioselective addition of diethylzinc to aldehydes with Ti(OⁱPr)₄. The structure of these diamino compounds has been systematically modified to optimize the results.     

1-Phosphino-2-sulfenylferrocenes as planar chiral ligands in enantioselective palladium-catalyzed allylic substitutions

The synthesis of a wide structural variety of enantiopure 1-phosphino-2-sulfenylferrocene ligands 1 possessing exclusively planar chirality is described. In the case of the readily available tert-butylsulfenyl derivatives very high enantioselectivities were obtained in the palladium-catalyzed allylic substitution of 1,3-diphenyl-2-propenyl acetate with dimethyl malonate (ee's up to 97%) and nitrogen nucleophiles (ee's up to 99.5%). Palladium complexes of these ferrocenes were characterized by NMR and X-ray diffraction, revealing the P,S-bidentate character of the ligands 1 and the formation of a single epimer on the stereogenic sulfur atom resulting from the complexation with palladium. A model justifying the observed asymmetric induction exerted by this novel family of chiral ferrocenes, supported by solution NMR studies on a palladium allylic complex, is discussed.     

Direct enantioselective aldol-Tishchenko reaction catalyzed by chiral lithium diphenylbinaphtholate

Chiral lithium diphenylbinaphtholate is an effective catalyst for the enantioselective aldol-Tishchenko reaction, affording 1,3-diol derivatives with three contiguous chiral centers and high stereoselectivities. Successive aldol-aldol-Tishchenko reactions gave a triol derivative with five consecutive chiral centers. The present reaction was applicable to highly enantioselective Evans-Tishchenko reduction.     

Easily accessible chiral dicyclopentadiene ligands for rhodium-catalyzed enantioselective 1,4-addition reactions

A variety of novel C₁-symmetric chiral diene ligands based on the dicyclopentadiene (DCP) skeleton were easily prepared from commercially available DCP. The application of these diene ligands in the rhodium-catalyzed asymmetric 1,4-addition of arylboronic acids to α,β-unsaturated carbonyl compounds has been examined and excellent enantioselectivities (up to 97% ee) as well as good yields were achieved under mild reaction conditions.     

Solid-phase development of chiral phosphoramidite ligands for enantioselective conjugate addition reactions

The development of a method for the optimization of chiral ligands for the steric steering of enantioselective Cu-catalyzed conjugate additions of Znalkyls to enones is described. The method is based on combinatorial principles and solid-phase techniques. It includes the combinatorial synthesis of chiral bispidine-derived ligands embodying a phosphoramidite group on the solid phase and their investigation in immobilized form in the conjugate addition of ZnEt2 to cyclohexenone as test reaction. The best identified ligands were also synthesized separately and investigated in its soluble form. The results obtained for the polymer-bound ligands correctly mirrored the performance of the soluble ligands. The library embodied members giving ee values varying between 3 and 67%. The "positional scanning" approach proved to be invalid for the study of the ligand system, indicating that this approach in general should be applied with care. Taken together, the method allowed for rapid and efficient optimization of the ligands and led to the development of the first enantioselective, Cu-catalyzed conjugate addition reaction with a polymer-bound ligand.     

Preparation of functionalized primary chiral amines and amides via an enantioselective three-component synthesis of propargylamines

A general preparation of functionalized primary chiral amines and amides from propargylamines has been developed. The chirality is established by an enantioselective three-component reaction of an aldehyde, a terminal alkyne and a secondary amine in the presence of copper(I) bromide/Quinap as the catalytic system leading to chiral propargylamines in high yields and enantioselectivities. Functionalization and reduction leads to various primary amines and amides.     

Enantioselective conjugate addition of a lithium ester enolate catalyzed by chiral lithium amides

Mixed aggregates of chiral lithium amide and lithium ester enolate have been employed in the enantioselective conjugate addition on alpha,beta-unsaturated esters. Michael adducts were obtained in ee's up to 76% combining a lithium enolate and a chiral 3-aminopyrrolidine lithium amide. The sense of the induction was found to be determined by both the relative configuration of the stereogenic centers borne by the amide and the solvent in which the reaction was conducted. [reaction: see text]     

Synthesis and application of oxadiazines as chiral ligands for the enantioselective addition of diethylzinc to aldehydes

A series of oxadiazines derived from l-phenylalanine bearing phenolic substituents have been synthesized in a multistep, one pot process. This process involves the reaction of a mixed anhydride with a β-hydrazino alcohol, methanesulfonylation of the alcohol moiety, and base induced cyclization. The resultant oxadiazines were employed in the asymmetric addition of diethylzinc to aldehydes.     

Chelation-induced axially chiral palladium complex system with tetraoxazoline ligands for highly enantioselective Wacker-type cyclization

A new family of chelation-induced axially chiral palladium complexes by using biphenyl ligands 2 with four identical chiral oxazoline groups at four ortho positions has been developed. Although there is no axial chirality in ligands 2 due to the molecular symmetry, when they chelated with one or two palladium ions, the axial chirality could be induced by destroying the molecular symmetry. Significantly, only one diastereomeric metal complex with (S)-axial configuration was produced during the chelation-induced process. The chelation-induced axially chiral catalytic system, 2c-Pd(CF3COO)2 (1:1 molar ratio), showed excellent catalytic activities and enantioselectivities in the Wacker-type cyclization of allylphenols with up to 99% ee.