Asymmetric Diels-Alder, predictive

Among chiral auxiliaries, l,3-oxazolidine-2-thiones (OZTs) have attracted important interest thanks to there various applications in different synthetic transformations. These simple structures, directly related to the well-documented Evans oxazolidinones, have been explored in asymmetric Diels-Alder reactions and asymmetric alkylations (7V-enoyl derivatives), but mainly in condensation of their 7V-acyl derivatives on aldehydes. Those have shown interesting characteristics in anti-selective aldol reactions or combined asymmetric addition. Normally, the use of chiral auxiliaries which can accomplish chirality transfer with a predictable stereochemistry on new generated stereogenic centers, are indispensable in asymmetric synthesis. The use of OZTs as chiral copula has proven efficient and especially useful for a large number of stereoselective reactions. In addition, OZT heterocycles are helpful synthons that can be specifically functionalized. 

Asymmetric Diels-Alder reactions have been the subject of some of the more thorough mechanistic studies. Fairly reliable structural models for predicting the outcome of these reactions exist. In a review of the subject, it has been suggested that the stereochemical course of the reaction of a variety of chiral acrylates could be consistently predicted based on two models (Figures 39 and 40). Model A positions the complex in a (Z)-syn-s-trans conformation and presumes attack from the least-hindered face of the double bond. This model is consistent with almost all of the structural data for systems of this type (e.g. SnCWethyl cinnamate X-ray diffraction study). Contrapuntally, the large number of experimental observations that can be explained by this model support the assumption that the crystal structure conformation (26) is relevant to the course of these reactions. 

The orbital mixing theory was developed by Inagaki and Fukui [1] to predict the direction of nonequivalent orbital extension of plane-asymmetric olefins and to understand the n facial selectivity. The orbital mixing rules were successfully apphed to understand diverse chemical phenomena [2] and to design n facial selective Diels-Alder reactions [28-34], The applications to the n facial selectivities of Diels-Alder reactions are reviewed by Ishida and Inagaki elesewhere in this volume. Ohwada [26, 27, 35, 36] proposed that the orbital phase relation between the reaction sites and the groups in their environment could control the n facial selectivities and review the orbital phase environments and the selectivities elsewhere in this volume. Here, we review applications of the orbital mixing rules to the n facial selectivities of reactions other than the Diels-Alder reactions. 

Inagaki, Fujimoto and Fukui demonstrated that ir-facial selectivity in the Diels-Alder reaction of 5-acetoxy- and 5-chloro-l,3-cyclopentadienes, 1 and 2, can be explained in terms of deformation of a frontier molecular orbital FMO [2], The orbital mixing rule was proposed to predict the nonequivalent orbital deformation due to asymmetric perturbation of the substituent orbital (Chapter Orbital Mixing Rules by Inagaki in this volume). 

Unlike the impressive progress that has been reported with asymmetric catalysis in other additions to alkenes (i.e., the Diels-Alder cycloaddition, epoxidation, dihydroxylation, aminohydroxylation, and hydrogenation) so far this is terra incognita with nitrile oxide cycloadditions. It is easy to predict that this will become a major topic in the years to come. 

A library of chiral dihydropyrans (226) [241] was synthesized using asymmetric hetero-Diels-Alder reactions (HAD) on polymer-bound enol ethers (221) and a, 3-unsaturated oxalyl esters (222). A chiral Lewis acidic Cu -bisoxazoline complex was used because of its high efficiency, the high predictability of the reaction outcome, and its broad substrate tolerance [280]. Enol ethers were used as alkene components bearing a hydroxy function for attachment to the resin via a silyl linkage (Scheme 49). The diene components carried allyl-ester groups, which could be readily displaced by amino functions in subsequent steps of the combinatorial synthesis. 

A large number of reviews, highlights, and chapters were published in the year under review including a computational program, ACE, developed to predict the stereochemical outcome of asymmetric reactions. Its accuracy and usefulness had been established by the agreement of the results from the application of ACE and those from the previously investigated asymmetric reactions such as alkene epoxidations, Diels-Alder cycloaddition, organo-catalysed aldol reactions, and those derived from the DFT study. ... 

A new strategy for the predictable creation of new chiral centres and its application to the synthesis of sugars and macrocycles is presented in a review on the use of double asymmetric induction in the aIdol condensation, the Diels Alder cycloaddition, epoxidation and hydrogenation. Two approaches to the construction of appropriately functionalised six-carbon chains are outlined in a review on the dg novo synthesis of carbohydrates from achiral precursors (i), hetero-Diels Alder reaction with inverse... 

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