Alkenes Jacobsen

Diaminocyclohexane [(R,R)- and ( S, S)-enantiomer] forms an imine (SCHIFF base) with 2,5-di-/ rr-butylsalicylaldehyde, which gives a chiral Mn(III) (salen) complex with Mn(II)acetate and oxygen. In contrast to the Sharpless-Katsuki protocol (p 20), this complex effects the stereoselective oxygen transfer (from oxidants, e.g. monopersulfate or NMO) to unfunctionalized alkenes (Jacobsen epoxidation [1], extended by Katsuki [2]) giving rise to enantiomeric oxiranes with 90-98% ee. 

Non-functionalized alkenes 6, with an isolated carbon-carbon double bond lacking an additional coordination site, can be epoxidized with high enantiomeric excess by applying the Jacobsen-Katsuki epoxidation procedure using optically active manganese(iii) complexes ... 

The Best results are obtained with cA-alkenes however, the epoxidation of tri-and tetra-substituted double bonds is also possible. Because of its versatility, the Jacobsen-Katsuki epoxidation is an important method in asymmetric synthesis. 

In 1995, aziridination with 1,3-dienes 10 by treatment with PhI=NTs 9 was developed (Scheme 2.4) [10] on the foundation of pioneering works by Jacobsen and Evans on copper-catalyzed asymmetric aziridination of isolated alkenes [11]. 

Ten years after Sharpless s discovery of the asymmetric epoxidation of allylic alcohols, Jacobsen and Katsuki independently reported asymmetric epoxidations of unfunctionalized olefins by use of chiral Mn-salen catalysts such as 9 (Scheme 9.3) [14, 15]. The reaction works best on (Z)-disubstituted alkenes, although several tri-and tetrasubstituted olefins have been successfully epoxidized [16]. The reaction often requires ligand optimization for each substrate for high enantioselectivity to be achieved. 

Conjugated dienes can be epoxidized to provide vinylepoxides. Cyclic substrates react with Katsuki s catalyst to give vinylepoxides with high ees and moderate yields [17], whereas Jacobsen s catalyst gives good yields but moderate enantiose-lectivities [18]. Acyclic substrates were found to isomerize upon epoxidation (Z, )-conjugated dienes reacted selectively at the (Z)-alkene to give trans-vinylepoxides (Scheme 9.4a) [19]. This feature was utilized in the formal synthesis of leuko-triene A4 methyl ester (Scheme 9.4b) [19]. 

Ordinary alkenes (without an allylic OH group) have been enantioselectively epoxidized with sodium hypochlorite (commercial bleach) and an optically active manganese-complex catalyst. Variations of this oxidation use a manganese-salen complex with various oxidizing agents, in what is called the Jacobsen-Katsuki... 

The first application of ionic hquids for salen complexes dealt with the epoxidation of alkenes [14]. Jacobsen s Mn complex was immobilized in [bmimjlPFe] and different alkenes were epoxidized with aqueous NaOCl solution at 0 °C. As the ionic solvent sohdified at this temperature, dichloromethane was used as a cosolvent. The recychng procedure consisted of washing with water, evaporation of dichloromethane, and product extraction with hexane. The results (Table 3) were excellent and only a slow decay in activity and enantioselectivity was detected after several cycles. 

Immobilization of chiral complexes in PDMS membranes offers a method for the generation of new chiral catalytic membranes. The heterogenization of the Jacobsen catalyst is difficult because the catalyst loses its enantioselectivity during immobilization on silica or carbon surfaces whereas the encapsulation in zeolites needs large cages. However, the occlusion of this complex in a PDMS matrix was successful.212 The complex is held sterically within the PDMS chains. The Jacobsen catalyst occluded in the membrane has activity and selectivity for the epoxidation of alkenes similar to that of the homogeneous one, but the immobilized catalyst is recyclable and stable. 

The protocol developed by Jacobsen and Katsuki for the salen-Mn catalyzed asymmetric epoxidation of unfunctionalized alkenes continues to dominate the field. The mechanism of the oxygen transfer has not yet been fully elucidated, although recent molecular orbital calculations based on density functional theory suggest a radical intermediate (2), whose stability and lifetime dictate the degree of cis/trans isomerization during the epoxidation <00AG(E)589>. 

The requirement for the presence of an adjacent alcohol group can be regarded as quite a severe limitation to the substrate range undergoing asymmetric epoxidation using the Katsuki-Sharpless method. To overcome this limitation new chiral metal complexes have been discovered which catalyse the epoxidation of nonfunctionalized alkenes. The work of Katsuki and Jacobsen in this area has been extremely important. Their development of chiral manganese (Ill)-salen complexes for asymmetric epoxidation of unfunctionalized olefins has been reviewed1881. 

Shi s method gives good results for disubstituted /f-alkenes compared to the Jacobsen epoxidation previously described, which is more specific for disubstituted Z-alkenes. Concerning the epoxidation of trisubstituted alkenes, the epoxidation of 1-phenyl-1-cyclohexene could not be validated because of... 

Jacobsen and co-workers (61) demonstrated that diimine-copper complexes are moderately selective for the asymmetric cyclopropanation of 1,2-dihydro-naphthalene, Eq. 44. A correlation was found between selectivities in the asymmetric aziridination and the asymmetric cyclopropanation catalyzed by the same species. Jacobsen argues that this supports the notion that the two processes follow similar mechanistic pathways. These workers also studied the complexation event between alkenes and Cu(I)-diimine complexes by NMR and by crystallographic characterization (62). For a thorough treatment of these results, see Section II.B.3. 

In a study published concurrently with the Evans bis(oxazoline) results, Jacobsen and co-workers (82) demonstrated that diimine complexes of Cu(I) are effective catalysts for the asymmetric aziridination of cis alkenes, Eq. 66. These authors found that salen-Cu [salen = bis(salicylidene)ethylenediamine] complexes such as 88b Cu are ineffective in the aziridination reaction, in spite of the success of these ligands in oxo-transfer reactions. Alkylation of the aryloxides provided catalysts that exhibit good selectivities but no turnover. The optimal catalyst was found to involve ligands that were capable only of bidentate coordination to copper. 

The cis alkenes are more reactive and more selective than their trans counterparts. As with the Evans system, this reaction is not stereospecific. Acyclic cis alkenes provide mixtures of cis and trans aziridines. cis-p-Methylstyrene affords a 3 1 ratio of aziridines favoring the cis isomer, Eq. 67, although selectivity is higher in the trans isomer. A fascinating discussion of this phenomenon, observed in this system as well as the Mn-catalyzed asymmetric oxo-transfer reaction, has been advanced by Jacobsen and co-workers (83). Styrene provides the aziridine in moderate selectivity, Eq. 68, not altogether surprising since bond rotation in this case would lead to enantiomeric products. 

It should be added that many other groups have contributed to the predevelopments of these inventions and also to later developments. All four reactions find wide application in organic synthesis. The Sharpless epoxidation of allylic alcohols finds industrial application in Arco s synthesis of glycidol, the epoxidation product of allyl alcohol, and Upjohn s synthesis of disparlure (Figure 14.4), a sex pheromone for the gypsy moth. The synthesis of disparlure starts with a Ci3 allylic alcohol in which, after asymmetric epoxidation, the alcohol is replaced by the other carbon chain. Perhaps today the Jacobsen method can be used directly on a suitable Ci9 alkene, although the steric differences between both ends of the molecules are extremely small ... 

Although the Sharpless catalyst was extremely useful and efficient for allylic alcohols, the results with ordinary alkenes were very poor. Therefore the search for catalysts that would be enantioselective for non-alcoholic substrates continued. In 1990, the groups of Jacobsen and Katsuki reported on the enantioselective epoxidation of simple alkenes both using catalysts based on chiral manganese salen complexes [8,9], Since then the use of chiral salen complexes has been explored in a large number of reactions, which all utilise the Lewis acid character or the capacity of oxene, nitrene, or carbene transfer of the salen complexes (for a review see [10]). 

In 1993, Jacobsen and Evans simultaneously reported that [7V-(p-tolylsulfonyl)imino]phenyliodinane (TsN=IPh, 195) is an efficient asymmetric nitrene transfer reagent to alkenes in the presence of a catalytic amount of a copper(i) salt and a chiral diimine ligand or a chiral bis(oxazoline) ligand (Equation (31)). Mechanistic study by Jacobsen and co-workers suggests that a discrete copper(iii) nitrene complex is an intermediate responsible to the reaction. ... 

Jacobsen and co-workers have found that catalytic amounts of chiral quaternary ammonium salts, such as 6i, promote a dramatic reversal in the diastereoselectivity of (salen)Mn-catalyzed epoxidation of cis-alkenes, resulting in a highly enantioselective catalytic route to trans-epoxides (Scheme 10.14) [72]. 

Non-heme iron catalysts containing multidentate nitrogen ligands such as pyri-dines and amines have been studied by various groups [42a, 52-54], Jacobsen and coworkers presented an MMO mimic system for the epoxidation of aliphatic alkenes in which the catalyst self-assembles to form the active species [54] (Scheme 3.5). Interestingly, small amounts of an additive (one equivalent of acetic acid) increased the catalytic performance, presumably due to the intermediate formation of peroxya-cetic acid [55, 56]. The reactions proceeded quickly even with terminal aliphatic alkenes, which are generally considered difficult substrates. Another catalyst system available for the epoxidation of terminal alkenes uses phenanthroline as ligand [57]. 

Attempts to aziridinate alkenes with iron catalysts in an asymmetric manner have met with only limited success to date [101], In an early report on the use of various chiral metal salen complexes, it was found that only the Mn complex catalyzed the reaction whereas all other metals investigated (Cr, Fe, Co, Ni etc.) gave only unwanted hydrolysis of the iminoiodinane to the corresponding sulfonamide and iodoben-zene [102], Later, Jacobsen and coworkers and Evans et al. achieved good results with chiral copper complexes [103]. 

Interestingly, the propensity of the boron atom to engage in secondary interactions was also examined by Jacobsen. The interaction of the rhodium complex 60 with a model substrate, namely 5-hexen-l-amine, was monitored by 1H NMR spectroscopy.62 The stronger upheld shifts of the alkene resonances compared to those observed upon coordination of the same substrate to the related boron-free salt [Rh(cod)(DIOP)][ClC>4] (cod = cycloocta-1,5-diene) were attributed to a cooperative behavior of the boron and metal centers of 60 that concomitantly interact with the nitrogen atom and alkene moiety, respectively (Figure 20). 

E. J. Allain, L. P. Hager, L. Deng, and E. N. Jacobsen, Highly enantioselective epoxidation of disubstituted alkenes with hydrogen peroxide catalyzed by chloro-peroxidase, J. Am. Chem. Soc. 1993, 115, 4415-4416. 

However, Jacobsen was able to show that, after addition of a pyridine JV-oxide derivative, trisubstituted alkenes are in fact excellent substrates. The dissymmetry of the chiral salen ligand can effectively orient the radical selectivity ... 

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