Carbenes asymmetric reactions, chiral auxiliaries

The Diels-Alder reaction of simple alkoxy alkenylcarbene complexes leads to mixtures of endo and exo cycloadducts, with the endo isomer generally being the major one [96,97]. Asymmetric examples of endo Diels-Alder reactions have also been reported by the use of chiral auxiliaries both on the carbene complex and the diene. Thus, the reaction of cyclopentadiene with chiral alkenylcarbene complexes derived from (-)-menthol proceeds to afford a 4 1... 

By stereoselective additions of carbenes or carbene equivalents to alkenes optically pure cyclopropanes are obtained. " In concerted [2+1] cycloadditions the stereochemistry of the alkene is conserved in the products. (Z)-configurated alkenes lead stereospecifically to cis-cyclopropanes. So far, compared to [2+1] cycloadditions involving alkenes bearing the chiral auxiliary, asymmetric reactions involving chiral carbene precursors proved to be less efficient. 

Addition of dicarboethoxycarbene to cycloocta-1,3-diene yields a mixture of cis-and fran -cyclopropane adducts, probably by addition of the singlet carbene on the partially isomerized diene (due to the irradiation). Diastereoselective cyclopropan-ation of a ,/3-unsaturated acetals has been described using a camphor-derived chiral auxiliary. Intramolecular cyclopropenation of a diazo ester, tethered through a naphthalene, to an alkyne was catalysed by rhodium acetate and reported as a efficient method unfortunately, the use of chiral rhodium catalysts gave a less efficient reaction and did not provide high asymmetric induction. ... 

Another chiral auxiliary-based approach was documented by Davies (Equation 5) [8, 34]. These studies involved diazo compounds that incorporate vinyl and C=0 substitution and revealed that these stable carbene precursors participate in a variety of useful transformations, including diastereoselective cydopropanations. Importantly, Davies found that the cydopropanations with 33, in contrast with those of their simpler diazoacetate counterparts, are highly diastereoselective. The reaction with styrene and chiral diazo compound 33 is representative treatment of styrene with 33 in the presence of a simple Rh catalyst resulted in the formation of product 34 with high asymmetric induction dr 98.5 1.5) and in 84% yield. In this example, the panto-lactone auxiliaiy is a convenient, readily available chiral alcohol. 

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