Bifunctional chiral phosphine Lewis

Figure 2.9 Bifunctional chiral phosphine Lewis bases for use as catalysts.

Asymmetric organocatalytic Morita-Baylis-Hillman reactions offer synthetically viable alternatives to metal-complex-mediated reactions. The reaction is best mediated with a combination of nucleophilic tertiary amine/phosphine catalysts, and mild Bronsted acid co-catalysts usually, bifunctional chiral catalysts having both nucleophilic Lewis base and Bronsted acid site were seen to be the most efficient. Although many important factors governing the reactions were identified, our present understanding of the basic factors, and the control of reactivity and selectivity remains incomplete. Whilst substrate dependency is still considered to be an important issue, an increasing number of transformations are reaching the standards of current asymmetric reactions. 

In 2003, we first demonstrated that l,l -bi-2,2 -naphthol (BINOL)-derived chiral LBBA (Lewis base and Bronsted add) bifunctional phosphine CP17 (LB = PPhs, BA = Ph-OH) could be used as an effective catalyst in asymmetric aza-MBH reaction of A-tosylimines with MVK and phenyl acrylate, affording the corresponding adducts in good yields with high ees (Scheme 2.119). The addition of molecular sieves increased chemical yields because they removed the ambient moisture that caused the decomposition of A-sulfonated imines. The asymmetric induction of this catalyst is comparable to that of the quinidine... 

An unsymmetrical salen ligand bearing a Lewis base catalyses Ti(OPr-i)4-promoted addition of TMSCN to benzaldehyde with as little as 0.05 mol% loading, quantitative conversion is achieved in 10 min at ambient temperature. Another salen catalyst - a bifunctional salen-phosphine oxide-Ti(IV) combination - promotes enantioselective cyanosilylation of aldehydes. Fine tweaking of the structure of another series of bifunctional chiral salen-Ti(IV) complexes allows the enantioselectivity to be reversed. Biaryl-bridged salen-titanium complexes are also highly efficient catalysts, one example giving 87% ee at room temperature. ... 

Shibasaki and coworkers developed a bifunctional chiral catalyst possessing the Lewis acid (aluminum metal) and the Lewis base (phosphine oxide), which was successfully applied to asymmetric Reissert-type reaction of trimethylsilylcyanide (TMSCN) [45]. The reaction of quinoline (92) with TMSCN and 2-furoyl chloride in the presence of Lewis acid Lewis base catalyst (91) occurred to give the Reisser product in 91% yield and 85% ee. The chiral catalyst was connected to JandaJRL... 

Shibasaki et al. developed a polymer-supported bifunctional catalyst (33) in which aluminum was complexed to a chiral binaphtyl derivative containing also two Lewis basic phosphine oxide-functionahties. The binaphtyl unit was attached via a non-coordinating alkenyl Hnker to the Janda Jel-polymer, a polystyrene resin containing flexible tetrahydrofuran-derived cross-Hnkers and showing better swelling properties than Merifield resins (Scheme 4.19) [105]. Catalyst (33) was employed in the enantioselective Strecker-type synthesis of imines with TMSCN. 

A new catalyst incorporating chiral thiourea and nucleophilic Lewis base showed efficiency in the asymmetric BH reactions. The use of a binaphthyl-based amino-thiourea catalyst 63 synthesized by Wang et al. [ 114] resulted in good yields and enantioselectivities in the reaction of cyclohexenone and aldehydes. Another amino-thiourea 12 was demonstrated as an efficient bifunctional catalyst for the enantio-selective aza-BH reaction of (3-methyl-nitrostyrene and iV-tosyl-aldimines, affording P-nitro-y-enamines in modest to excellent enantioselectivities and diastereoselec-tivities (Scheme 9.32). It was found that no reaction occurred in the absence of the methyl group of nitroalkene [115]. A similar phophine-thiourea catalyst 64 was reported in 2008 by Wu and co-workers [116] and turned out to be efficient in the asymmetric BH reaction of MVK and aldehydes, providing fast reaction rate, good yields, and excellent enantioselectivities (87-94% ee). More recently, aL-threonine-derived phosphine-thiourea catalyst 65 was readily synthesized by Lu and coworkers [117] and applied in the enantioselective BH reaction of aryl aldehyde with methyl acrylate. 

Recently, hydrocyanation and cyanosilylation reactions with other type of chiral aluminum complexes were reported. In 1999, Shibasaki and Kanai reported enantioselective cyanosilylation of aldehydes catalyzed by Lewis acid-Lewis base bifunctional catalyst (64a) [56, 57]. In this catalyst, aluminum center works as a Lewis acid to activate the carbonyl group, and the oxygen atom of the phosphine oxide works as a Lewis base to activate TMSCN. Asymmetric induction was explained by the proposed transition state model having the external phosphine oxide coordination to aluminum center, thus giving rise to pentavalent aluminum... 

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