Asymmetric transfer hydrogenation catalysts

Fig. 17 Asymmetric ligands used in aqueous asymmetric transfer hydrogenation catalysts...

The use of chiral ruthenium catalysts can hydrogenate ketones asymmetrically in water. The introduction of surfactants into a water-soluble Ru(II)-catalyzed asymmetric transfer hydrogenation of ketones led to an increase of the catalytic activity and reusability compared to the catalytic systems without surfactants.8 Water-soluble chiral ruthenium complexes with a (i-cyclodextrin unit can catalyze the reduction of aliphatic ketones with high enantiomeric excess and in good-to-excellent yields in the presence of sodium formate (Eq. 8.3).9 The high level of enantioselectivity observed was attributed to the preorganization of the substrates in the hydrophobic cavity of (t-cyclodextrin. 

Among the most active catalysts for the asymmetric transfer hydrogenation of prochiral ketones and imines to chiral alcohols and amines are arene-ruthenium(II) amino-alcohol (or primary/ secondary 1,2-diamine)-based systems, with an inorganic base as co-catalyst, developed by Noyori139-141 and further explored by others (Scheme 27).142-145... 

Noyori and coworkers reported well-defined ruthenium(II) catalyst systems of the type RuH( 76-arene)(NH2CHPhCHPhNTs) for the asymmetric transfer hydrogenation of ketones and imines [94]. These also act via an outer-sphere hydride transfer mechanism shown in Scheme 3.12. The hydride transfer from ruthenium and proton transfer from the amino group to the C=0 bond of a ketone or C=N bond of an imine produces the alcohol or amine product, respectively. The amido complex that is produced is unreactive to H2 (except at high pressures), but readily reacts with iPrOH or formate to regenerate the hydride catalyst. 

Palmer and Wills in 1999 reviewed other ruthenium catalysts for the asymmetric transfer hydrogenation of ketones and imines [101]. Gladiali and Mestro-ni reviewed the use of such catalysts in organic synthesis up to 1998 [102]. Review articles that include the use of ruthenium asymmetric hydrogenation catalysts cover the literature from 1981 to 1994 [103, 104], the major contributions... 

A number of excellent reviews have recently been published [1] consequently, this chapter will consider mainly the practical aspects of asymmetric transfer hydrogenation by reviewing each of the components of the reaction, namely catalyst, hydrogen donor, substrate, product and other elements such as solvent, reaction conditions and scale-up. 

In broad terms there are three types of catalyst for transfer hydrogenation dehydrogenases heterogeneous and homogenous metal catalysts. Here, the first two are mentioned for completeness, and the main focus of this chapter will be asymmetric transfer hydrogenation with homogenous metal catalysts. 

The mechanism of the Meerwein-Pondorf-Verley reaction is by coordination of a Lewis acid to isopropanol and the substrate ketone, followed by intermolecular hydride transfer, by beta elimination [41]. Initially, the mechanism of catalytic asymmetric transfer hydrogenation was thought to follow a similar course. Indeed, Backvall et al. have proposed this with the Shvo catalyst [42], though Casey et al. found evidence for a non-metal-activation of the carbonyl (i.e., concerted proton and hydride transfer [43]). This follows a similar mechanism to that proposed by Noyori [44] and Andersson [45], for the ruthenium arene-based catalysts. By the use of deuterium-labeling studies, Backvall has shown that different catalysts seem to be involved in different reaction mechanisms [46]. 

The synthesis of amines by the in-situ reductive amination of ketones is termed the Leuckart-Wallach reaction. Recently, an asymmetric transfer hydrogenation version of this reaction has been realized [85]. Whilst many catalysts tested give significant amounts of the alcohol, a few produced almost quantitative levels of the chiral amine, in high enantiomeric excess. 

Carpentier and coworkers studied the asymmetric transfer hydrogenation of /f-keloeslers using chiral ruthenium complexes prepared from [(// -p-cyrriene)-RuC12]2 and chiral aminoalcohols based on norephedrine. During this study, these authors became aware of substrate inhibition when ketoesters carrying 4-halo-substituents were used. It transpired that this was caused by formation of a complex between the substrate and the catalyst [28]. 

Evans et al.106 report an asymmetric transfer hydrogenation of ketones using samarium(III) complex (108) as the catalyst at ambient temperature in 2-propanol. The products showed ee comparable with those obtained through enantioselective borane reduction (Scheme 6-48). 

Jiang et al.113 synthesized another tridentate ligand 121 for asymmetric transfer hydrogenation. Ru-121-catalyzed asymmetric transfer hydrogenation gives comparable enantioselectivity to Noyori s catalyst 109 but shows more... 

In this chapter and in Chapters 10-12, we will review and validate some methods for asymmetric (transfer) hydrogenation of carbon-oxygen and carbon-carbon double bonds catalysed by non-metallic systems, homogeneous transition metal catalysts and biocatalysts. Reduction of carbon-nitrogen double bond systems will be reported in another volume of this series. 

The treatment of [Cp MCl2]2 (M = Rh and Ir) with (S,S)-TsDPEN gave chiral Cp Rh and Cp Ir complexes (12a and 12b Scheme 5.9). An asymmetric transfer hydrogenation of aromatic ketones using complex 12 was carried out in 2-propanol in the presence of aqueous KOH (1 equiv.) the results obtained are summarized in Table 5.4. In all of the reactions, the (S)-alcohols were obtained with more than 80% enantiomeric excess (ee) and in moderate to excellent yields. The rhodium catalyst 12a was shown to be considerably more active than the iridium catalyst... 

Ikariya and Noyori et al. also reported the synthesis of new chiral Cp Rh and Cp Ir complexes (13 and 14) bearing chiral diamine ligands [(R,R)-TsCYDN and (R,R)-TsDPEN] (Scheme 5.10) these are isoelectronic with the chiral Ru complex mentioned above, and may be used as effective catalysts in the asymmetric transfer hydrogenation of aromatic ketones [42], The Cp Ir hydride complex [Cp IrH(R,R)-Tscydn] (14c) and 5-coordinated amide complex (14d), both of which would have an important role as catalytic intermediates, were also successfully prepared. 

Table 5.5 Asymmetric transfer hydrogenation of aromatic ketones catalyzed by preformed chiral catalysts and KO Bu system in 2-propanol. ...

Analogous water-soluble Cp Rh and Cp lr complexes were prepared by Williams et al., and used in the asymmetric transfer hydrogenation of aromatic ketones under aqueous conditions [43]. These catalyst complexes contain water-soluble chiral diamine ligands (Scheme 5.11), and were prepared in situ by reacting [Cp MCl2]2 (M = Rh, Ir) with ligands 15a or 15b in the presence of a base, and used immediately. The results of the asymmetric transfer hydrogenation of... 

Figure 1.25 exemplifies the strucmres of certain efficient precatalysts for asymmetric transfer hydrogenation of ketones. Precatalysts C1-C3 use the NH effect described above. A turnover frequency, defined as moles of product per mol of catalyst per hour, of 30,000 h is achieved by using of C2 and an alkaline base in 2-propanol. A Rh complex C3 is an isolobal to the corresponding arene-Ru complex (see Figure 1.23). The Ru complexes C4 " and C5 without NH group in ligand catalyze the reaction by different mechanisms. A higher than 90% optical yield is achieved by using C5 in reduction of certain aliphatic ketones.

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