Alkanols, enantioselective asymmetric

Soai et al. established highly enantioselective asymmetric autocatalysis in the asymmetric isopropylation of pyrimidine-5-carbaldehyde 27 (Scheme 14) [44], quinoline-3-carbaldehyde [45], and 5-carbamoylpyridine-3-carbaldehyde [46]. Among these, 2-alkynyl-5-pyrimidyl alkanol is a practically perfect asymmetric autocatalysis [47]. When 0.2 equivalents of 2-alkynyl-5-pyrimidyl alkanol 28b with >99.5% ee was employed as an asymmetric autocatalyst in the isopropylation of 2-alkynylpyrimidine-5-carbaldehyde 27b, it automultiplies in a yield of >99% without any loss of ee (>99.5% ee). When the product was used as an asymmetric autocatalyst for the next run, pyrimidyl alkanol 28b with >99.5% ee was obtained in >99%. Even after tenth round, pyrimidyl alkanol 28b with >99.5% ee was formed in a yield of >99% [47]. 

Highly Enantioselective Asymmetric Autocatalysis of Pyrimidyl Alkanol... 

The first highly enantioselective asymmetric autocatalytic reaction was achieved in the addition of (-Pr2Zn to pyrimidine-5-carbaldehydes 55 by using chiral 5-pyrimidyl alkanols 56 as asymmetric autocatalysts. When chiral pyrimidyl alkanol 56b with 95% ee was used, it was automultiplied without any loss of enantiopurity to give itself with 96% ee [54], The enantiopu-rity of the newly formed pyrimidyl alkanol 56b reached 98.2% ee when asymmetric autocatalyst 56b with > 99.5% ee was used (Scheme 9.27). 

One of the reasons that the enantioselectivity of 5-pyrimidyl alkanol is higher than that of 3-pyridyl alkanol may be due to the presence of symmetry in the pyrimidine ring. When the bond between the asymmetric carbon and the pyridine ring rotates, conformational isomers of pyridyl alkanol will be formed (Figure 9.2). However, with pyrimidyl alkanol, the rotation does not form conformational isomers. Thus, the reduced number of possible conformational isomers may enable 5-pyrimidyl alkanol to serve as a highly enantioselective asymmetric autocatalyst. 

Chiral 3-quinolyl alkanol acts as a highly enantioselective asymmetric autocatalyst. Chiral (S)-59 with 94% ee catalyzes the enantioselective addition of i-Pr2Zn to quinoline-3-carbaldehyde (58) to... 

Then, we discovered that chiral 2-methyl-l-(5-pyrimidyl)propan-l-ol 8 serves as a highly enantioselective asymmetric autocatalyst for the addition of z-Pr2Zn to pyrimidine-5-carbaldehyde 7 (Scheme 4) [60]. In this compound, the formyl group is connected to the symmetric pyrimidine ring instead of the pyridine ring. When highly enantioenriched (S)-pyrimidyl alkanol 8 with 99% ee was employed as an asymmetric autocatalyst, (S)-8 with 95% ee composed of both the newly formed and the initially used 8 was obtained. The yield of the newly formed 8 was calculated to be 67% and the enantiomeric excess was 93% ee. 

Scheme 4 Highly enantioselective asymmetric autocatalysis of pyrimidyl alkanol in enantioselective z -Pr2Zn addition...

We investigated highly enantioselective asymmetric autocatalysis of a chiral compound induced by the isotopic enantiomer of a primary alcohol-a-d (Scheme 22) [118]. The correlation between the absolute configurations of the obtained pyrimidyl alkanol and the isotopic chiral compound is reproducible, thus the small isotope chirality can be recognized by asymmetric autocatalysis. 

Scheme 23 Helical silica-induced highly enantioselective asymmetric autocatalysis of chiral pyrimidyl alkanol...

We found that chiral 5-pyrimidyl alkanol, 3-quinolyl alkanol and 5-carbamoyl-3-pyridyl alkanol are highly enantioselective asymmetric autocatalysts for the addition of z-Pr2Zn to the corresponding aldehydes, respectively. Among these, 2-alkynyl-5-pyrimidyl alkanol is a highly efficient asymmetric auto-... 

In summary, we have described how we find out the asymmetric autocatalysis with amplification of chirality in the reaction between pyrimidine-5-carbaldehyde and i-Pr2Zn. 2-Alkynyl-5-pyrimidyl alkanol is a highly enantioselective asymmetric autocatalyst with greater than 99.5% enantioselectivity for the addition of i-Pr2Zn to the corresponding pyrimidine-5-carbaldehydes. Furthermore, it was found that enantiomeric excess of asymmetric autocatalyst enhances during the reaction. Thus, (5)-pyrimidyl alkanol with as low as ca. 0.00005% ee enhanced its ee to... 

Negishi reported the zirconium-catalyzed enantioselective carboalumination of alkenes, which consisted of a hydroalumination/alkylalumination tandem process.133-135 This permits the asymmetric syntheses of methyl-substituted alkanols and other derivatives, typically with >90% ee, which represents an increase in ee value by 15% from the previously obtained 70-80%.136-138 The hydroalumination/zirconium-catalyzed enantioselective carboalumination of alkenes was carried out using (—)-bis(neomenthylindenyl)zirconium dichloride as the catalyst (Table 15).133... 

Although the application of carboalumination to the synthesis of natural products is still in its infancy, a few preliminary results shown in Scheme 1.50 [167,168,171,172] suggest that it promises to become a major asymmetric synthetic reaction, provided that (i) the singularly important case of methylalumination can be made to proceed with S90% ee, and (ii) satisfactory and convenient methods for enantiomeric and diastereo-meric separation/purification can be developed. In this context, significant increases in ee in the synthesis of methyl-substituted alkanols from around 75 % to 90—93 % achieved through some strategic modifications are noteworthy (Scheme 1.50) [168]. Shortly before the discovery of the Zr-catalyzed enantioselective carboalumination, a fundamentally discrete Zr-catalyzed asymmetric reaction of allylically heterosubstituted alkenes proceeding via cyclic carbozirconation was reported, as discussed later in this section. 

We have demonstrated the enantioselective synthesis of near-enantiopure compounds by asymmetric photodegradation of racemic pyrimidyl alkanol 2c by circularly polarized light followed by asymmetric autocatalysis. This is the first example of asymmetric autocatalysis triggered directly by a chiral physical factor CPL. 

The first asymmetric autocatalysis with amplification of was observed in the automultiplication of a 5-pyrimidyl alkanol 80 (Figure l)169. When (5)-5-pyrimidyl alkanol 80 with as low as 2% is used as the asymmetric autocatalyst for enantioselective addition of diisopropylzinc to pyrimidine-5-carbaldehyde 88, the of the produced pyrimidyl alkanol (and the initial asymmetric autocatalyst) 80 increases to 10% (Figure 1, 1st run). Consecutive asymmetric autocatalyses using 5-pyrimidyl alkanol 80 with 10% have increased its to 57%, 81% and 88% , successively. During the reactions, the major (S)-enantiomer in the initial asymmetric autocatalyst has automultiplied by a factor of 238, while the slightly minor (R)-enantiomer has automultiplied by a factor of only 16. 

When enantioselective addition of diisopropylzinc to pyrimidine-5-carbaldehyde 89 was examined, simple 2-butanol with low (ca 0.1%) induces a tiny chirality in the initially produced alkanol 81 and the value of the finally obtained alkanol becomes higher (73-76%) due to the asymmetric autocatalysis (Table 2). Note that the value can be further amplified by subsequent asymmetric autocatalysis, as described in the preceding section. Various chiral compounds have been proved to act as chiral initiators. 

Pyridyl alkanol [41], diol [42], and ferrocenyl alcohol [43] were the first asymmetric autocatalysts found by Soai and co-workers in the enantioselective alkylation of pyridine-3-carbaldehyde, dialdehyde, and ferrocenecarbaldehyde, respectively, with dialkylzincs. 

Fu reported the enantioselective addition of diphenylzinc to ketones catalyzed by chiral amino alcohol 6, and observed a slight asymmetric amplification [13]. Bolm also reported asymmetric amplification in enantioselective alkylations using diethylzinc promoted by a chiral 2-pyridyl alkanol 7 and (1-hydroxy sulfoximine 8 (Scheme 9.6) [14,15]. 

In the course of the continuing study [9a,b] on the enantioselective addition of dialkylzincs to aldehydes by using chiral amino alcohols such as diphenyl(l-methyl-2-pyrrolidinyl)methanol (45) (DPMPM) [48] A. A -dibutylnorephedrine 46 (DBNE) [49], and 2-pyrrolidinyl-l-phenyl-1-propanol (47) [50] as chiral catalysts, Soai et al. reacted pyridine-3-carbaldehyde (48) with dialkylzincs using (lS,2/ )-DBNE 46, which gave the corresponding chiral pyridyl alkanols 49 with 74-86% ee (Scheme 9.24) [51]. The reaction with aldehyde 48 proceeded more rapidly (1 h) than that with benzaldehyde (16 h), which indicates that the product (zinc alkoxide of pyridyl alkanol) also catalyzes the reaction to produce itself. This observation led them to search for an asymmetric autocatalysis by using chiral pyridyl alkanol. 

Chiral diol 52 [52] and ferrocenyl alkanol 54 [53] also work as asymmetric autocatalysts in the enantioselective addition of dialkylzincs to the corresponding dialdehyde 51 and ferrocene-carbaldehyde 53, respectively (Scheme 9.26). 

The introduction of a carbamoyl group to the 5-position of chiral 3-pyridyl alkanol enhances its efficacy as asymmetric autocatalyst. (S)-5-Carbamoyl-3-pyridyl alkanols 61 are automulti-plied with up to 86% ee in the enantioselective addition of i-Pr2Zn to 5-carbamoyl-3-pyridine-carbaldehyde 60 (Scheme 9.32) [60]. The enantioselectivity depends on the structure of the substituent on the nitrogen atom of the amide. A bulky t-Pr substituent is efficient for achieving high enantioselectivity. The amplification of the enantiopurity of 61 to a certain degree is also observed [61]. 

We reasoned that chiral organic compounds with low ee induced by CPL can act as a chiral trigger in the enantioselective addition of z -Pr2Zn to pyrimidine-5-carbaldehyde, and that the subsequent asymmetric autocatalysis of pyrimidyl alkanol, formed in situ, amplifies its ee to produce highly enantioenriched pyrimidyl alkanol with an absolute configuration corresponding to that of the handedness of the CPL. 

We found that inorganic helical structures such as helical silica serve as chiral triggers for asymmetric autocatalysis (Scheme 23). In the presence of helical silica, the enantioselective addition of z-P Zn to 2-alkynylpyrimidine-5-carbaldehyde 11 was examined. In the presence of right-handed helical silica, (S)-5-pyrimidyl alkanol 12 was formed [123]. In contrast, in the presence of left-handed helical silica, (S)-5-pyrimidyl alkanol 12 with high ee was obtained. These results clearly show that asymmetric auto catalysis can discriminate the helical structure in artificially tuned inorganic silica. 

In 1995, Soai and coworkers reported a highly enantiose-lective asymmetric autocatalysis of pyrimidyl alkanol in the enantioselective addition reaction of I-Pr2Zn to pyrimidine-5-carboxaldehyde (equation 63). When a 5-pyrimidyl alkanol with a small enantiomeric excess such as 5x10 % is added to j-Pr2Zn and pyrimidine-5-carboxaldehyde, then the reaction... 

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