Carbohydrate-based ketone catalysts

Me3Si)2NH, Me3SiCl, Pyr, 20°, 5 min, 100% yield. ROH is a carbohydrate. Hexamethyldisilazane (HMDS) is one of the most common silylat-ing agents and readily silylates alcohols, acids, amines, thiols, phenols, hydroxamic acids, amides, thioamides, sulfonamides, phosphoric amides, phosphites, hydrazines, and enolizable ketones. It works best in the presence of a catalyst such as X-NH-Y, where at least one of the groups X or Y is electron withdrawing." Yttrium-based Lewis acids also serve as catalysts. ... 

Finally, carbohydrate ligands of enantioselective catalysts have been described for a limited number of reactions. Bis-phosphites of carbohydrates have been reported as ligands of efficient catalysts in enantioselective hydrogenations [182] and hydrocyanations [183], and a bifunctional dihydroglucal-based catalyst was recently found to effect asymmetric cyanosilylations of ketones [184]. Carbohydrate-derived titanocenes have been used in the enantioselective catalysis of reactions of diethyl zinc with carbonyl compounds [113]. Oxazolinones of amino sugars have been shown to be efficient catalysts in enantioselective palladium(0)-catalyzed allylation reactions of C-nucleophiles [185]. 

Enders et al. also reported direct asymmetric Mannich reactions starting from the protected ketone 14 [10]. Several protected carbohydrates and amino sugars were assembled in a three-component reaction. Alongside L-proline (1) they employed the L-hydroxyproline-based catalyst 17 (Scheme 5.10). This catalyst proved to be beneficial in terms of reaction rate due to superior solubility properties. Remarkably, the addition of water had a positive effect on the stereoselectivity in case catalyst 17 was employed. 

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