Asymmetric reduction, reagent

Asymmetric Reduction of Unsymmetrical Ketones Using Chiral Boron Reagents Review Synthesis 1992, 605. 

Optically Active PO. The synthesis of optically pure PO has been accompHshed by microbial asymmetric reduction of chloroacetone [78-95-5] (90). (3)-2-Meth5loxirane [16088-62-3] (PO) can be prepared in 90% optical purity from ethyl (3)-lactate in 44% overall yield (91). This method gives good optical purity from inexpensive reagents without the need for chromatography or a fermentation step. (3)-PO is available from Aldrich Chemical Company, having a specific rotation [0 ] ° 7.2 (c = 1, CHCl ). 

Enantiomerically pure alkylboranes arc known to be excellent reagents for asymmetric reduction but they can also be used to generate enantiomerically pure /V-borylimines by partial reduction of nitriles. Addition of organolithium and Grignard reagents to these compounds affords secondary carbinamines in moderate to good yield but low enantioselectivity13,14. The best results reported so far are shown below. 

They were applied as effective reagents for the asymmetric reduction of ketones with borane. 

Haubenstock, H., Asymmetric Reductions with Chiral Complex Aluminum Hydrides and Tricoordinate Aluminum Reagents, 14, 231. 

Boranes have opened the door to asymmetric reduction of carbonyl compounds. The first attempt at modifying borane with a chiral ligand was reported by Fiaud and Kagan,75 who used amphetamine borane and desoxyephedrine borane to reduce acetophenone. The ee of the 1-phenyl ethanol obtained was quite low (<5%). A more successful borane-derived reagent, oxazaborolidine, was introduced by Hirao et al.76 in 1981 and was further improved by Itsuno and Corey.77 Today, this system can provide high stereoselectivity in the asymmetric reduction of carbonyl compounds, including alkyl ketones. 

Asymmetric reductions. The reagent can effect asymmetric reduction of alkyl aryl ketones and unhindered dialkyl ketones in high optical yield.1 It is the most useful reagent known to date for asymmetric reduction of even hindered a-keto esters to (S)-a-hydroxy esters in >90% ee.2 It is also effective for asymmetric reduction of phosphinyl imines of dialkyl ketones, RlR2C=NP(0)(C6H5)2 (50-84% ee).3... 

Asymmetric reduction of dialkyl ketones. The borohydride 1 reduces dialkyl ketones with low enantioselectivity. However, treatment of the lithium dihydri-doborate 2 with methanesulfonic acid provides Reagent I, which consists of 1 equiv. of R,R-1 and 0.2 equiv. of 2,5-dimethylborolanyl mesylate, which serves as a... 

In an attempt to prepare alkylamines by asymmetric reduction of imines with chiral hydride reagents, diphenylphosphinyl imines (38), prepared by reaction of ketoximes (39) with chlorodiphenylphosphine [(Cg 115)2 PCI], were reduced in the presence of a variety of chiral aluminum and boron hydride reagents43. Among the most promising reagents was BINAHL-H44 (40), a chiral hydride compound prepared by the modification of lithium... 

ASYMMETRIC REDUCTIONS WITH CHIRAL ALUMINUM REAGENTS... 

Asymmetric reduction of ketones or aldehydes to chiral alcohols has received considerable attention. Methods to accomplish this include catalytic asymmetric hydrogenation, hydrosilylation, enzymatic reduction, reductions with biomimetic model systems, and chirally modified metal hydride and alkyl metal reagents. This chapter will be concerned with chiral aluminum-containing reducing re-... 

Many studies have been directed toward the empirical development of synthetically effective reagents for asymmetric reductions. Criteria for an efficient asymmetric synthesis have been summarized by Eliel (12) as follows ... 

In many studies of asymmetric reductions no attempts were made to rationalize either the extent or the sense of the observed asymmetric induction, that is, the absolute configuration of the predominant enantiomer. It is believed that it is premature in certain cases to attempt to construct a model of the transition state of the key reaction step, given the present state of knowledge about the mechanism of these reduction processes. The complexity of many of the reducing systems developed is shown by the fact that the enantiomeric excess or even the sense of asymmetric induction may depend not only on the nature of the reducing agent and substrate, but also on temperature, solvent, concentration, stoichiometry of the reaction, and in some cases the age of the reagent. 

Cervinka has employed these reagents in the asymmetric reduction of im-monium salts (49,50) and imines (51). The reduction of 2-substituted jV-methyl-A -tetrahydropyridinium perchlorates (10) with (— )-menthol-LAH in ether or THF led to optically active piperidine derivatives (eq. [10]). The optical purity obtained for the Pr" derivative was 12%. In the case of R = Me and Pr" the configuration of the predominant enantiomer was shown to be S. The (-)-menthol-LAH reagent was similarly shown to reduce l-methyl-2-alkyl-A -di-hydropyrrolinium perchlorates (11) to optically active pyrrolidine derivatives (eq. [11]). The optical yield could be calculated only for R = CH2Ph, and was only 6% (/ enantiomer) obtained with a 1 1 (— )-menthoi-LAH reagent. With 2 1 or 3 1 molar ratios of menthol LAH, the optical yield decreased. The... 

The 36d-LAH complex was applied to the reduction of ketone oximes and their O-tetrahydropyranyl and O-methyl derivatives to optically active amines (69). Results for a variety of phenyl alkyl and dialkyl ketones are shown in Table 4. The predominant amines formed all were of the S absolute configuration with optical purities up to 56%. The oxime hydroxy group presumably reacts with the less hindered H2 in the 36d-LAH complex (cf. Scheme 6) to form an oxime complex (45), which probably undergoes infermolecular hydride transfert of H2 from a second molecule of the 36d-LAH complex (Scheme 8). Asymmetric reduction with the ethanol-modified 36d-LAH reagent gave amines of R con-... 

Coordination of the aluminum atom of the reducing complex was proposed to take place both to the oxygen atom of the hydroxy group and to the nitrogen atom of the amino group. The asymmetric reduction of enamine perchlorates and ketimines with menthol and bomeol chiral auxiliary reagents (50,51) presumably involves coordination of aluminum to the nitrogen atom of the substrate. 

Asymmetric reduction of acetophenone led to (/ )-( + )-1 -phenyl-1 -ethanol with 65 to 69, and with 72, whereas the (S)-( - )-alcohol was formed with 70 and 71. Again the optical yields were relatively low, with the highest 48%, obtained with 65. Asymmetric reductions in very low optical yields were observed with the simple alcohols (-)-l-phenyl-1-ethanol (73) and (-)-3,3-di-methyl-2-butanol (74) as chiral auxiliary reagents. 

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