Acrylic acid Chirality

Dupont et al. were able to obtain up to 80 % ee in the conversion of 2-phenyl-acrylic acid into (S)-2-phenylpropionic acid with the chiral [RuCl2(S)-BINAP]2NEt3 complex as catalyst in [BMIM][Bp4] melts (Scheme 5.2-9) [54]. 

Hydrostannation of chiral menthyl esters of substituted acrylic acids proceeds stereoselectiveiy, providing a route to optically active alkyl-... 

In recent years, the catalytic asymmetric hydrogenation of a-acylamino acrylic or cinnamic acid derivatives has been widely investigated as a method for preparing chiral a-amino acids, and considerable efforts have been devoted for developing new chiral ligands and complexes to this end. In this context, simple chiral phosphinous amides as well as chiral bis(aminophosphanes) have found notorious applications as ligands in Rh(I) complexes, which have been used in the asymmetric hydrogenation of a-acylamino acrylic acid derivatives (Scheme 43). 

The fundamental concepts of enantioselective hydrogenation were introduced in Section 2.5.1 of Part A, and examples of reactions of acrylic acids and the important case of a-acetamido acrylate esters were discussed. The chirality of enantioselective hydrogenation catalysts is usually derived from phosphine ligands. A number of chiral phosphines have been explored in the development of enantioselective hydrogenation catalysts,21 and it has been found that some of the most successful catalysts are derived from chiral 1, l -binaphthyldiphosphines, such as BINAP.22... 

The highly ordered cyclic TS of the D-A reaction permits design of diastereo-or enantioselective reactions. (See Section 2.4 of Part A to review the principles of diastereoselectivity and enantioselectivity.) One way to achieve this is to install a chiral auxiliary.80 The cycloaddition proceeds to give two diastereomeric products that can be separated and purified. Because of the lower temperature required and the greater stereoselectivity observed in Lewis acid-catalyzed reactions, the best diastereoselectivity is observed in catalyzed reactions. Several chiral auxiliaries that are capable of high levels of diastereoselectivity have been developed. Chiral esters and amides of acrylic acid are particularly useful because the auxiliary can be recovered by hydrolysis of the purified adduct to give the enantiomerically pure carboxylic acid. Early examples involved acryloyl esters of chiral alcohols, including lactates and mandelates. Esters of the lactone of 2,4-dihydroxy-3,3-dimethylbutanoic acid (pantolactone) have also proven useful. 

Enantioselective Diels-Alder reactions proceed smoothly in the presence of a chiral Sc catalyst, prepared in situ from Sc(OTf)3, R)- I )-l,l -bi-2-napluhol [(R)-BINOL], and a tertiary amine in dichloromethane.58 The catalyst is also effective in Diels-Alder reactions of an acrylic acid derivative with dienes (Scheme 14). 

In the early 1990s, Burk introduced a new series of efficient chiral bisphospholane ligands BPE and DuPhos.55,55a-55c The invention of these ligands has expanded the scope of substrates in Rh-catalyzed enantioselective hydrogenation. For example, with Rh-DuPhos or Rh-BPE as catalysts, extremely high efficiencies have been observed in the asymmetric hydrogenation of a-(acylamino)acrylic acids, enamides, enol acetates, /3-keto esters, unsaturated carboxylic acids, and itaconic acids. 

The enantioselective hydrogenation of a,fj- or / ,y-unsaturated acid derivatives and ester substrates including itaconic acids, acrylic acid derivatives, buteno-lides, and dehydrojasmonates, is a practical and efficient methodology for accessing, amongst others, chiral acids, chiral a-hydroxy acids, chiral lactones and chiral amides. These are of particular importance across the pharmaceutical and the flavors and fragrances industries. 

Dipolar addition is closely related to the Diels-Alder reaction, but allows the formation of five-membered adducts, including cyclopentane derivatives. Like Diels-Alder reactions, 1,3-dipolar cycloaddition involves [4+2] concerted reaction of a 1,3-dipolar species (the An component and a dipolar In component). Very often, condensation of chiral acrylates with nitrile oxides or nitrones gives only modest diastereoselectivity.82 1,3-Dipolar cycloaddition between nitrones and alkenes is most useful and convenient for the preparation of iso-xazolidine derivatives, which can then be readily converted to 1,3-amino alcohol equivalents under mild conditions.83 The low selectivity of the 1,3-dipolar reaction can be overcome to some extent by introducing a chiral auxiliary to the substrate. As shown in Scheme 5-51, the reaction of 169 with acryloyl chloride connects the chiral sultam to the acrylic acid substrate, and subsequent cycloaddition yields product 170 with a diastereoselectivity of 90 10.84... 

A breakthrough in this area came when Dang and Kagan3 synthesized DIOP, a C2 chiral diphosphine obtained from tartaric acid (Fig. 6-1). DIOP-Rh(I) complex catalyzed the enantioselective hydrogenation of a-(acylamino)acrylic acids and esters to produce the corresponding amino acid derivatives with up to 80% ee. These achievements stimulated research on a variety of bidentate chiral diphosphines, and numerous chiral ligands bearing C2 symmetry have been developed as a result (see Fig. 6-1 for examples). 

TABLE 6-1. Asymmetric Hydrogenation of Trisubstituted Acrylic Acids Catalyzed by Chiral Ferrocenylphosphine-Rhodium Complexes... 

The application of chiral boron catalysts in the cycloadditions of ,/3-unsaturated aldehydes and acrylic acid derivatives has been investigated most. 

The cationic chiral Lewis acids 10, generated from the corresponding oxazaboroli-dines by protonation by trifluoromethanesulfonic acid, are excellent catalysts for the enantioselective reaction of 2-substituted acroleins, a-unsaturated a,p-enones, a-unsaturated acrylic acid esters, and a-unsaturated acrylic acids with a variety... 

As can be seen in Table 5, various oxazolidones of acrylic acid derivatives react with cyclopentadiene to afford the endo-adducts in good to high (64-91%) enantioselectivity by the combined use of a catalytic amount of the chiral titanium reagent and MS 4A. 

Several chiral phosphorous ligands with great structural diversity are effective for the rhodium-catalyzed hydrogenation of a-dehydroamino acid derivatives. Tab. 1.1 summarizes the asymmetric hydrogenation of (Z)-2-(acetamido)ciimamic acid, 2-(acetamido)acrylic acid, and their methyl ester derivatives. 

With a rhodium complex catalyst containing a chiral ligand dispersed in [BMIM]SbFg, the enantioselective hydrogenation of a-acetamidocinnamic acid to (5)-phenylalanine was achieved with 64% enantiomeric excess 112). [RuCl2( S)-BINAP]2 NEt3 in [BMIM]BF4 for (5)-naproxen synthesis gave 80% ee from 2-(6-methoxy-2-naphthyl) acrylic acid and isopropyl alcohol 214). 

The formation of spirocyclopropanes from the reaction of diazodiphenylmethane and ( )-8-phenylmenthyl esters of acrylic acid and methyl fumarate occurred with a modest level of diastereofacial selectivity (136). In contrast, diastereoselectivities of 90 10 were achieved in the cycloadditions of diazo(trimethylsilyl)methane with acrylamides 65 derived from camphor sultam as the chiral auxiliary (137) (Scheme 8.16). Interestingly, the initial cycloadducts 66 afforded the nonconjugated A -pyrazolines 67 on protodesilylation the latter were converted into optically active azaproline derivatives 68. In a related manner, acrylamide 69 was converted into A -pyrazolines 70a,b (138). The major diastereoisomer 70a was used to synthesize indolizidine 71. The key step in this synthesis involves the hydrogenolytic cleavage of the pyrazoline ring. 

The oxazoline ring acts as an electron-withdrawing group for a substituent at the 2-position. Thus, the ot-protons of a 2-alkyloxazoline exhibit some acidity and can be abstracted by a base. A 2-alkenyloxazoline can be viewed as a masked acrylic acid derivative and is capable of undergoing Michael addition and Diels-Alder reactions. These reactions can often be carried out stereoselectively using a chiral oxazoline. Other types of chiral auxilliaries, most notably oxazolidinones, are also very effective for these types of applications. However, they are outside the scope of this chapter. The discussion in this section will focus on the new developments with oxazolines. 

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