Ammonium enolates enantioselective aldol reaction

Enantioselective carbon-carbon bond formation with silyl enol ethers has been achieved using binaphthol-derived chiral alkoxides and cinconidine-derived quaternary ammonium salts for aldol reactions and Michael reactions, respectively (Scheme 3-121, Figure 3-5). 

Carbonyl Addition Diethylzinc has been added to benzaldehyde at room temperature in the presence of an ephedra-derived chiral quat (8) to give optically active secondary alcohols, a case in which the chiral catalyst affords a much higher enantioselectivity in the solid state than in solution (47 to 48, Scheme 10.6) [30]. Asymmetric trifluoromethylation of aldehydes and ketones (49 to 50, Scheme 10.6 [31]) is accomplished with trifluoromethyl-trimethylsilane, catalyzed by a quaternary ammonium fluoride (3d). Catalyst 3d was first used by the Shioiri group for catalytic asymmetric aldol reactions from silyl enol ethers 51 or 54 (Scheme 10.6) [32]. Various other 1,2-carbonyl additions [33] and aldol reactions [34] have been reported. 

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],... 

I n 1993, the first cinchona-catalyzed enantioselective Mukaiyama-type aldol reaction of benzaldehyde with the silyl enol ether 2 of 2-methyl-l -tetralone derivatives was achieved by Shioiri and coworkers by using N-benzylcinchomnium fluoride (1, 12 mol%) [2]. However, the observed ee values and diastereoselectivities were low to moderate (66-72% for erythro-3 and 13-30% ee for threo-3) (Scheme 8.1). The observed chiral inductioncan be explained by the dual activation mode ofthe catalyst, that is, the fluoride anion acts as a nucleophilic activator of the silyl enol ethers and the chiral ammonium cation activates the carbonyl group of benzaldehyde. Further investigations on the Mukaiyama-type aldol reaction with the same catalyst were tried later by the same [ 3 ] and another research group [4], but in all cases the enantioselectivities were too low for synthetic applications. 

Some other very important events in the historic development of asymmetric organocatalysis appeared between 1980 and the late 1990s, such as the development of the enantioselective alkylation of enolates using cinchona-alkaloid-based quaternary ammonium salts under phase-transfer conditions or the use of chiral Bronsted acids by Inoue or Jacobsen for the asymmetric hydro-cyanation of aldehydes and imines respectively. These initial reports acted as the launching point for a very rich chemistry that was extensively developed in the following years, such as the enantioselective catalysis by H-bonding activation or the asymmetric phase-transfer catalysis. The same would apply to the development of enantioselective versions of the Morita-Baylis-Hillman reaction,to the use of polyamino acids for the epoxidation of enones, also known as the Julia epoxidation or to the chemistry by Denmark in the phosphor-amide-catalyzed aldol reaction. ... 

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