Absolute configuration of coordination

Kirschner S. The Pfeiffer Effect, Outer-Sphere Complexation, and the Absolute Configuration of Coordination Compounds. J Indian Chem Soc 1974 51 28-31. 

Binaphthol-derived titanium complexes [64], prepared from chiral ligands 65 (Figure 3.13), also performed very well in the cycloadditions of conjugated aldehydes with cyclic and acyclic dienes. Judging from the absolute configurations of endo and exo adducts, this catalyst should cover the re-face of carbonyl on its u tz-coordination to s-trans a,/l-unsaturated aldehydes, and hence dienes should approach selectively from the si-face. 

The high enantioselectivity shown in the above reactions can be attributed to two important factors. First, coordination of the Lewis acid with the a-hydroxy ketone moiety of dienophile 17 or 19 leads to the formation of a rigid five-membered chelate 21. This chelate causes the differentiation of the two dia-stereotopic faces of the enone system. Second, arising from the established absolute configuration of 17 and 19, within 21, the Diels-Alder reaction proceeds with the enone fragment at its cisoid position (yyu-planar). 

The ambiguity involved in assigning the absolute configuration of a chiral molecule in a chiral crystal is presented in Scheme 1. Scheme la depicts a chiral molecule of, say, configuration S, with individual atomic coordinates — x — y - z, (i = 1,. . . , n, for n atoms) in a crystal axial system a,b,c. Scheme 1 b represents the enantiomeric crystal structure containing a molecule of configuration... 

In the orthorhombic point group mm2 there is an ambiguity in the sense of the polar axis c. Conventional X-ray diffraction does not allow one to differentiate, with respect to a chosen coordinate system, between the mm2 structures of Schemes 15a and b (these two structures are, in fact, related by a rotation of 180° about the a or c axis) and therefore to fix the orientation and chirality of the enantiomers with respect to the crystal faces. Nevertheless, by determining which polar end of a given crystal (e.g., face hkl or hkl) is affected by an appropriate additive, it is possible to fix the absolute sense of the polar c axis and so the absolute structure with respect to this axis. Subsequently, the absolute configuration of a chiral resolved additive may be assigned depending on which faces of the enantiotopic pair [e.g., (hkl) and (hkl) or (hkl) and (hkl)] are affected. 

The X-ray structure of the Cut complex 21 of phosphoramidite 14 provides additional insight into a possible mechanism for stereocontrol (Fig. 7.3). The formation of the L2CuEt-enone complex involves substitution of the iodide in 21 for the alkyl moiety and of one of the ligands for the -coordinated enone. Coordination of RZnX results in the bimetallic intermediate 19 (Fig. 7.3). The absolute configuration of the two phosphoramidite ligands and the pseudo-C2-symmetric arrangement dictate the formation of (S)-3-ethyl-cyclohexanone. 

The absolute configuration of the major adduct obtained from the reaction of frans-crotonaldehyde with nitrone I was determined as the 35,4/ , 55 isomer by derivatization with (/ )-(-)-a-methylbenzylamine [45]. Accordingly, the / e-face of the coordinated frans-crotonaldehyde has to be much more accessible to the nitrone than its 5i-face during the chirality induction step. 

The utility of -phenyl camphor-derived oxazolidinones as chiral formyl anion syn-thons has been demonstrated by Gawley and coworkers (Scheme 42). Deprotonation yields a dipole-stabihzed organolithium intermediate and the absolute configuration of the lithium-bearing carbon is presumed to be R. Additions to benzaldehyde and cyclohexane carboxaldehyde are 86% and 76% diastereoselective, respectively, but recrystallization affords a single diastereomer in the yields shown. Addition is postulated to proceed via the pre-complex shown in the inset, in which the aldehyde is coordinated to the R epimer... 

Reversal of the absolute configuration of the product 6 by addition of a zinc salt was observed in the cross-coupling of 2a with 4a catalyzed by 51/Ni [38,39] (Scheme 8F.7). Thus, the cross-coupling of the Grignard reagents 2a with 4a in the presence of nickel catalyst coordinated with aminoalkylphosphine (S)-51a gave (S)-6 with 61% ee, whereas the reaction of the... 

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