A novel hydrazide type organocatalyst for enantioselective Diels-Alder reactions

The development of a new class of hydrazide type organocatalyst, (4R,5R)-1,3-bis(isopropylamino)-4,5-dihenylimidazolidin-2-one 2a, for enantioselective Diels-Alder reactions between cyclopentadiene and α,β-unsaturated aldehydes are presented. The new organocatalyst 2a promoted the reaction, affording Diels-Alder adducts in good yields with good levels of enantioselectivity.     

Highly diastereoselective and enantioselective direct organocatalytic anti-selective Mannich reactions employing N-tosylimines

Organocatalytic direct anti-selective Mannich reactions of O-TBS-hydroxyacetone with various N-tosylimines derived from aromatic aldehydes in the presence of L-threonine-derived catalyst afforded 1,2-amino alcohols in good yields and with enantioselectivities of 99% in almost all cases.     

A new cationic,chiral catalyst for highly enantioselective Diels-Alder reactions

[reaction: see text] The Diels-Alder reaction of cyclopentadiene and 2-methacrolein is catalyzed by a chiral Lewis acid to form the exo adduct in 96% yield and 96% ee.     

Synthesis of new chiral cyclic 1,2-diamines and their evaluation as catalysts for enantioselective Diels-Alder reactions

The synthesis of new, enantiomerically pure cyclic 1,2-diamine structures was realized through a zinc promoted coupling of chiral bis-imines easily prepared starting from a chiral biphenyl dicarboxylic acid. The catalytic properties of such novel compounds were preliminarily studied; the trifluoroacetate salts of these chiral 1,2-diamines were shown to be able to catalyze the Diels-Alder reaction between cyclopentadiene and α,β-unsaturated aldehydes with good exo stereoselectivity and enantioselectivities up to 71%.     

Design and development of highly effective Lewis acid catalysts for enantioselective Diels-Alder reactions

This report describes the design and development of chiral Co(III)-salen catalysts for enantioselective Diels-Alder reactions. A crystal structure of a Co-salen catalyst with two equivalents of benzaldehyde provided insight on the factors that may be important for enantioselectivity. On the basis of this structural information, new catalysts were prepared in which the "bay region" tert-butyl groups were replaced by trimethylsilyl groups. The new silyl-substituted catalysts were exceptionally effective (catalyst loadings down to 0.05 mol %) and convenient to use-room temperature, under an air atmosphere, using a minimum amount of solvent.     

N-alkoxyacrylamides as substrates for enantioselective Diels-Alder reactions

[reaction: see text] The use of N-alkoxyacrylamides as substrates for Lewis acid catalyzed Diels-Alder reactions has been examined. Enantioselectivities up to 92% ee have been achieved using very simple chiral Lewis acids prepared from triisobutylaluminum and 2,2-dimethyl-alpha,alpha,alpha',alpha'-tetra-1-naphthalenyl-TADDOL (1-NaphtTADDOL). The use of Yamamoto's Zn-BINOL, easily prepared from Et2Zn and 1,1'-bi-2-naphthol (BINOL), proved to be even more efficient, and enantioselectivities up to 96% ee were achieved.     

A new class of C1-symmetric monosulfoximine ligands for enantioselective hetero Diels-Alder reactions

Quinoline-based C1-symmetric sulfoximines have been used as chiral ligands in copper-catalyzed asymmetric hetero Diels-Alder reactions leading to cycloadducts with up to 96% ee.     

Conformationally flexible chiral supramolecular catalysts for enantioselective Diels-Alder reactions with anomalous endo/exo selectivities

The potential of supramolecular catalysts to realize anomalous regio- and/or stereoselectivity in organic synthesis is highly attractive. To date, there have been a few examples of non-polymeric and non-covalent chiral supramolecular catalysts that induce practical enantioselectivity. In this regard, a metal-organic framework (MOF) may be one of the most important techniques for constructing conformationally rigid supramolecular catalysts. However, it is not easy to use the MOF technique to fine-tune a much more precise cage in catalysts for anomalous purposes. To establish high catalytic activity with anomalous regio- and/or stereoselectivity, in principle, an artificial cage should be conformationally flexible, like an active pocket in an enzyme with an induced-fit function. In this feature article, we focus on the anomalous endo/exo-selective Diels-Alder reaction, and overview the development of the successive catalysts including our recent highly active, conformationally flexible, and chiral supramolecular catalysts. The evolution from 'ready-made' single-molecule catalysts to 'tailor-made' supramolecular catalysts could offer not only high enantioselectivity but also high anomalous endo/exo-selectivities due to substrate-specific characteristics, as with enzymes.     

Assembled enantioselective catalysts for carbonyl-ene reactions

A new strategy for generating assembled polymeric chiral titanium complexes using linked bis-BINOL ligands have been developed, and the assembled catalysts showed excellent enantioselectivity (up to 96.5% ee) for carbonyl-ene reaction under heterogeneous conditions to afford corresponding α-hydroxy esters in high yield. The linkers between two BINOL units of the ligands in the assembled catalysts were found to have significant impact on the enantioselectivity of reaction, which demonstrated the importance of the supramolecular structures of the assemblies for their catalytic behaviours.     

Enantioselective organocatalytic intramolecular Diels-Alder reactions. The asymmetric synthesis of solanapyrone D

The first direct enantioselective organocatalytic intramolecular Diels-Alder reaction has been accomplished. The use of iminium catalysis has provided a new catalytic strategy for the enantioselective [4 + 2] cycloisomerization of a wide variety of tethered diene-enal systems. The use of imidazolidinones 1 and 2 as the asymmetric catalysts has been found to mediate the enantioselective construction of [4.4.0] and [4.3.0] ring systems. Application of this methodology to the highly efficient asymmetric synthesis of the marine metabolite solanpyrone D has also been accomplished. A diverse spectrum of aldehyde substrates can also be accommodated in this new organocatalytic transformation. Importantly, this technology has been utilized to execute the first enantioselective, catalytic Type II IMDA reaction.     

Self-supported chiral catalysts for heterogeneous enantioselective reactions

The development of heterogeneous chiral catalysts for enantioselective reactions is highly desirable in order to overcome some drawbacks of homogeneous catalysts. Different from the conventional approaches by using various types of supports or biphasic systems for the recovery and reuse of homogeneous catalysts, a conceptually new strategy for heterogenization of homogeneous chiral catalysts, that is, a "self-supporting" approach, has been developed to use homochiral metal-organic coordination polymers generated by the self-assembly of chiral multitopic ligands with metal ions, and thus obviates the use of any support. In this concept article, the success of this "self-supporting" strategy will be exemplified in heterogeneous catalysis of asymmetric carbonyl-ene, sulfoxidation, epoxidation, and asymmetric hydrogenation reactions.     

A multifunctional proline-based organic catalyst for enantioselective aldol reactions

The synthesis of multifunctional organic catalysts, easily obtained by the condensation of (S)-proline with 1,1′-binaphthyl-2,2′-diamine is reported. These C₂ as well as C₁ symmetric prolinamides were shown to be able to promote the direct aldol condensation between acetone, methoxyacetone or cyclohexanone and different aldehydes in very good yields and high enantioselectivities.     

Alpha'-hydroxy enones as achiral templates for Lewis acid-catalyzed enantioselective Diels-Alder reactions

alpha'-Hydroxy enones react with dienes in the presence of (S,S)-[Cu(tBu-box)](OTf)2 or (S,S)-[Cu(tBu-box)](SbF6)2 (2 to 10 mol %) to afford the corresponding Diels-Alder adducts in high yield and selectivity. Isomeric ratios (regioselectivity, endo/exo or cis/trans) of up to >99:1 and ee values of up to >99% are obtained. Significantly, difficult dienes such as isoprene, 2,3-dimethyl butadiene and piperylene behave satisfactorily. Subsequent oxidative cleavage of the ketol in the resulting cycloadducts by treatment with cerium ammonium nitrate (CAN) yields the corresponding enantiopure carboxylic acids. Alternatively, carbonyl addition and subsequent diol cleavage with CAN produces the corresponding ketone adducts.     

Chiral copper complexes of phosphino sulfenyl ferrocenes as efficient catalysts for enantioselective formal Aza Diels-Alder reactions of N-sulfonyl imines

In the presence of a catalytic amount of silver perchlorate, copper(I) bromide complexes of planar chiral 1-phosphino-2-sulfenylferrocenes behave as very efficient chiral Lewis acids catalysts in the formal Aza Diels-Alder reaction of N-arylsulfonyl aldimines with electron-rich dienes (Danishefsky's and related dienes). Mixing of equimolar amounts of the readily available enantiopure ferrocenyl P,S-bidentate ligand and CuBr quantitatively affords the precatalyst Cu complex as an air-stable solid. This catalytic asymmetric procedure has a broad structural scope: aldimines of aromatic, alpha,beta-unsaturated, and even enolizable aliphatic aldehydes have been successfully used. The corresponding 2,3-dihydro-4-pyridones were obtained in good yields (57-90%) and with homogeneously high enantioselectivity (82-97% ee).     

An application of electronic asymmetry to highly enantioselective catalytic Diels-Alder reactions.

The compounds (RRu)-[CyRuCl(S)-BINPO]SbF6 and [CyRuCl(S)-TolBINPO]SbF6 (Cy = eta6-cymene), were synthesized from (CyRuCl2)(2) and the appropriate non-C2-symmetric bisphosphine monoxide ligands (S)-BINPO and (S)-TolBINPO (BINPO = 2,2'-bis(diphenylphosphino)-1,1'-binaphthyl) in the presence of NaSbF6. When these complexes were mixed with AgSbF6 the resulting Lewis acids catalyzed the Diels-Alder cycloaddition of cyclopentadiene and methacrolein. The product (2S)-methylbicyclo[2.2.1]hept-5-ene-2-carboxaldehyde was obtained with excellent diastereoselectivity (up to 99%) and enantioselectivity (up to 99%) in several cases. When the complexes containing the analogous C2-symmetric bisphosphine ligands (S)-BINAP and (S)-TolBINAP were employed as catalysts, the Diels-Alder cycloadducts were obtained with much lower enantioselectivity (19 to 50%) for the opposite antipode. Although some of the effect may arise from chelate ring size change, much of the enhanced stereoselectivity of (RRu)-[CyRuCl(S)-BINPO]SbF6 and [CyRuCl(S)-TolBINPO]SbF6 can be attributed to the electronic asymmetry at the stereogenic Ru center.     

A practical new chiral controller for asymmetric Diels-Alder and alkylation reactions

[formula: see text] The enantiomerically pure hydroxy sulfones (+)- and (-)-2 have been prepared from 1,2-epoxycyclohexane by a simple and practical procedure. The acrylate esters of these alcohols undergo BCl3-catalyzed Diels-Alder reactions with a variety of dienes at -78 to -55 degrees C in CH2Cl2 or C7H8 with high dienophile face selectivity (Table 1). The chiral esters so formed are readily cleaved with recovery of the controllers (+)- or (-)-2. Esters of (+)- and (-)-2 can be converted to Z-potassium enolates and alkylated with high face selectivity.