Acyclic imines, reduction

The asymmetric hydrogenation of acyclic imines with the ansa-titanocene catalyst 102 gives the chiral amines in up to 92% ee.684,685 This same system applied to cyclic imines produces the chiral amines with >97% ee values.684,685 The mechanism of these reductions has been studied 686... 

In order to test the capability of the novel P,N-ligands 97 in asymmetric catalyses, a challenging reductive transformation, the enantioselective hydrogenation of acyclic imines [79], was chosen. Based on previous work [76], iridium was... 

Marcus treatment does not exclude a radical pathway in lithium dialkyl-amide reduction of benzophenone. It does, however, seem to be excluded (Newcomb and Burchill 1984a,b) by observations on the reductions of benzophenone by N-lithio-N-butyl-5-methyl-l-hex-4-enamine in THF containing HMPA. Benzophenone is reduced to diphenylmethanol in good yield, and the amine yields a mixture of the acyclic imines no cyclic amines, expected from radical cyclization of a putative aminyl radical, were detected. An alternative scheme (17) shown for the lithium diethylamide reduction, accounts for rapid formation of diphenylmethoxide, and for formation of benzophenone ketyl under these conditions. Its key features are retention of the fast hydride transfer, presumably via the six-centre cyclic array, for the formation of diphenylmethoxide (Kowaski et al., 1978) and the slow deprotonation of lithium benzhydrolate to a dianion which disproportion-ates rapidly with benzophenone yielding the ketyl. The mechanism demands that rates for ketyl formation are twice that for deprotonation of the lithium diphenylmethoxide, and, within experimental uncertainty, this is the case. 

Examination of the enantioselectivities in Table 7.5 indicates a striking difference in selectivity achieved in the reduction of cyclic (entries 1-8) vs. acyclic imines (entries 9-11). The former is very nearly 100% stereoselective. The simple reason for this is that the acyclic imines are mixtures of E and Z stereoisomers, which reduce to enantiomeric amines vide infra). The mechanism proposed for this reduction is shown in Scheme 7.11 [86]. The putative titanium(III) hydride catalyst is formed in situ by sequential treatment of the titanocene BINOL complex with butyllithium and phenylsilane. The latter reagent serves to stabilize the catalyst. Kinetic studies show that the reduction of cyclic imines is first order in hydrogen and first order in titanium but zero order in imine. This (and other evidence) is consistent with a fast 1,2-insertion followed by a slow hydrogenolysis (a-bond metathesis), as indicated [86]. Although P-hydride elimination of the titanium amide intermediate is possible, it appears to be slow relative to the hydrogenolysis. 

For acyclic imines, note that interchange of Ri and R2 in the transition structure is equivalent to an E/Z isomerization of the educt. Reduction of cyclohexyl methyl A -benzyl imine, using a stoichiometric amount of catalyst affords a 92 8 R/S enantiomer ratio that is identical to the 92 8 E/Z ratio of the educt i.e., the reaction... 

The same systems are useful for the enantioselective reduction of other cyclic or acyclic imines to the corresponding amines (Fig. 81). 

Buchwald reported an important advance in enantioselective C=N reductions with the chiral titanocene catalyst 186 (X,X = l,l -binaphth-2,2 -diolate) [137]. The reduction of cyclic imines with 186 and silanes afforded products with high selectivity however, reductions of acyclic imines were considerably less selective. It was suggested that this arose from the fact that, unlike cyclic imines, acyclic imines are found as mixtures of equilibrating cis and trans isomers. An important breakthrough was achieved with the observation that in situ activation of the difluoride catalyst 187 (X = F) gave a catalytically active titanium hydride species that promotes the hydrosilylation of both cyclic and acyclic amines with excellent enantiomeric excess [138]. Subsequent investigations revealed that the addition of a primary amine had a beneficial effect on the scope of the reaction [138, 139]. A demonstration of the utility of this method was reported by Buchwald in the enantioselective synthesis of the alkaloid frans-solenopsin A (190), a constituent of fire-ant venom (Scheme 11.29) [140]. 

Reduction of iV-(3-bromopropyl) imines gives a bromo-amine in situ, which cyclizes to the aziridine. Five-membered ring amines (pyrrolidines) can be prepared from alkenyl amines via treatment with N-chlorosuccinimide (NCS) and then BusSnH. " Internal addition of amine to allylic acetates, catalyzed by Pd(PPh3)4, leads to cyclic products via a Sn2 reaction. Acyclic amines can be prepared by a closely related reaction using palladium catalysts. Three-membered cyclic amines (aziridines)... 

Stoddart and coworkers have used imine condensation in two different contexts to form interlocked molecules. The authors have modified the crown ether component of their dialkylammonium / D B24C8 system to incorporate reversible imine subunits which allow for dynamic clipping around dialkylammonium cation 91 [60], Three diformyl spacers (92-94) have been investigated with the same acyclic diamine 95 for their thermodynamic stability and kinetics of macrocyclization (96). However, reduction with BH3 to the kinetically trapped macrocyclic secondary diamine has only been reported for reaction of the 2,6-diformylpyridine derivative (Scheme 10.19 97) [60a]. 

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