Organocatalysts aldol reaction

The intramolecular aldol reaction can also proceed with high enantioselectivity. Daniel Romo of Texas A M University has shown (/ Org. Chem. 2005, 70,2835) that a quinine-derived organocatalyst Q works well for the cyclization of aldehyde acids such as 6 to the bicyclic p-lactone 8. Both 5- and 6-... 

Even considering only the example of the proline family of aldol catalysts, it is dear that there will soon be hundreds of cases of organocatalysts described in the literature. Direct, organocatalytic aldol reactions do not yet have the generality of traditional stoichiometric methods, which can offer predictable results for a wide variety of substrates. However, companies already offer to screen substrates against panels of up to 200 enzymes to find the optimum biocatalyst for a reaction, and the same approach could be applied to identify rapidly the best organocatalyst for a process. 

Zhou, L. and Wang, L. (2007) Chiral ionic liquid containing L-proline unit as a highly efficient and recyclable asymmetric organocatalyst for aldol reaction. Chem. Lett., 36 (5), 628-629. 

Stereoselective Aldol Reactions Using Proline Organocatalysts... 

The formation of covalent substrate-catalyst adducts might occur, e.g., by single-step Lewis-acid-Lewis-base interaction or by multi-step reactions such as the formation of enamines from aldehydes and secondary amines. The catalysis of aldol reactions by formation of the donor enamine is a striking example of common mechanisms in enzymatic catalysis and organocatalysis - in class-I aldolases lysine provides the catalytically active amine group whereas typical organocatalysts for this purpose are secondary amines, the most simple being proline (Scheme 2.2). 

The asymmetric aldol reaction is one of the most important topics in modern catalytic synthesis [54]. The products, namely />-hydroxy carbonyl compounds, have a broad range of applications and play a key role in the production of pharmaceuticals [55], Since the discovery of the catalytic asymmetric aldol reaction with enolsi-lanes by Mukaiyama et al. [56], steady improvements of the metal-catalyzed asymmetric aldol reaction have been made by many groups [57]. For this type of aldol reaction a series of chiral metal catalysts which act as Lewis acids activating the aldol acceptor have been shown to be quite efficient. It was recently shown by the Shibasaki group that the asymmetric metal-catalyzed aldol reaction can be also performed with unmodified ketones [57a], During the last few years, several new concepts have been developed which are based on use of organocatalysts [58], Enolates and unmodified ketones can be used as aldol donors. 

Aldol reactions using a quaternary chinchona alkaloid-based ammonium salt as orga-nocatalyst Several quaternary ammonium salts derived from cinchona alkaloids have proven to be excellent organocatalysts for asymmetric nucleophilic substitutions, Michael reactions and other syntheses. As described in more detail in, e.g., Chapters 3 and 4, those salts act as chiral phase-transfer catalysts. It is, therefore, not surprising that catalysts of type 31 have been also applied in the asymmetric aldol reaction [65, 66], The aldol reactions were performed with the aromatic enolate 30a and benzaldehyde in the presence of ammonium fluoride salts derived from cinchonidine and cinchonine, respectively, as a phase-transfer catalyst (10 mol%). For example, in the presence of the cinchonine-derived catalyst 31 the desired product (S)-32a was formed in 65% yield (Scheme 6.16). The enantioselectivity, however, was low (39% ee) [65],... 

Aldol reactions using a carbocation as an organocatalyst An organocatalytic aldol reaction based on a different concept was developed by the Chen group. The chiral triarylcarbenium ion 34 was used as a novel non-metallic Lewis acid catalyst in a Mukaiyama-type aldol reaction which led to enantiomerically enriched aldol products (Scheme 6.17) [67]. Although non-chiral trityl salt-mediated catalytic aldol reactions had previously been reported by Mukaiyama and co-workers [68], the construction of a suitable chiral carbenium ion remained a challenge. Optically active salts of type 34 were synthesized as Lewis acids based on a reactive carbe-... 

Aldol reactions using phosphoramides as organocatalysts The organic base-catalyzed asymmetric intermolecular aldol reaction with ketone-derived donors can be successfully applied to the construction of aldol products with two stereogenic centers [82-86]. Trichlorosilyl enolates of type 51 have been used as nucleophiles. Such enolates are strongly activated ketone derivatives and react spontaneously with several aldehydes at —80 °C. A first important result was that in the aldol reaction of 51 catalytic amounts of HMPA led to acceleration of the rate of reaction. After screening several optically active phosphoramides as catalysts in a model reaction the aldol product anti-53 was obtained with a diastereomeric... 

The Denmark phosphoramide organocatalyst has recently been applied in the first catalytic, diastereoselective, and enantioselective crossed-aldol reaction of aldehydes [86]. It is worthy of note that such controlled stereoselective selfcondensation of aldehydes has previously found no general application, because of many side-reactions, e.g. polyaldolization, and dehydration of the products. Several previously developed solutions have limitations. In a first step the Denmark group developed a procedure for generation of stereodefined trichlorosilyl enolates of aldehydes with high geometrical purity. Use of these geometrically pure (Z) and... 

Aldol reactions using L-proline as organocatalysts The concept of the proline-catalyzed aldol reaction has been recently extended by List et al. and the Barbas... 

In addition to the classic aldol reaction described, e.g., in Sections 6.2.1 and 6.2.2, several modified versions have been reported. These methods are based on the use of nucleophiles related to the standard ketones. In particular, y-dienolates, nitromethane, and nitrones are interesting carbon nucleophiles in aldol reactions and the use of these types of substrate has been investigated in aldol reactions catalyzed by organocatalysts. 

In summary, several reports have shown that asymmetric modified aldol reactions using y-dienolates, nitroalkanes, or nitrones as donors can (in principal) be performed by use of organocatalysts. Often, however, enantioselectivity is moderate only, and must still be improved. Because these organocatalytic reactions give important intermediates, e.g. for synthesis of pharmaceuticals, it can be expected that this field of modified aldol reactions with organocatalysts will gain further synthetic importance in the future. 

Aldol reactions enjoy great recognition as a useful tool for the synthesis of building blocks in natural product and drug synthesis [42, 182]. The stereochemistry of the stereogenic centers formed can be controlled by various means. Besides chiral auxiliaries, catalytic methods with chiral Lewis acids, organocatalysts, or catalytic antibodies were established for stereochemical control [183-187]. 

Carefully matched acid and base catalysis has been used to select the pyrrolidine-p-nitrophenol combination as an efficient organocatalyst for direct aldol reactions.108... 

Structure-activity relationships have been probed in (S)-histidine-based dipeptides employed as organocatalysts for direct asymmetric aldol reactions, focusing on intramolecular cooperation between side-chain functions H-Leu-His-OH proved particularly useful.111... 

Hydroxyaldehydes, with an intervening quaternary centre, have been synthesized enantioselectively by direct aldol reactions of oqa-dialkylaldehydes with aromatic aldehydes, using a chiral bifunctional pyrrolidine sulfonamide organocatalyst.118... 

Several reports deal with aqueous media. Acid-base catalysis by pure water has been explored, using DFT, for the model aldol reaction of acetone and acetaldehyde.125 A Hammett correlation of nornicotine analogues (28) - a series of meta- and para-substituted 2-arylpyrrolidines - as catalysts of an aqueous aldol reaction shows p = 1.14.126 Also, direct aldol reactions have been carried out in water enantioselectively, using protonated chiral prolinamide organocatalysts.127... 

In conclusion, the aldol reaction with L-proline as an enzyme mimic is a successful example for the concept of using simple organic molecules as chiral catalysts. However, this concept is not limited to selected enzymatic reactions, but opens up a general perspective for the asymmetric design of a multitude of catalytic reactions in the presence of organocatalysts [1, 3]. This has been also demonstrated by very recent publications in the field of asymmetric syntheses with amino acids and peptides as catalysts. In the following paragraphs this will be exemplified by selected excellent contributions. 

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