Catalysis chiral inducers

As mentioned in the previous section, nowadays, readily available and inexpensive cinchona alkaloids with pseudoenantiomeric forms, such as quinine and quinidine or cinchonine and cinchonidine, are among the most privileged chirality inducers in the area of asymmetric catalysis. The key feature responsible for their successful utility in catalysis is that they possess diverse chiral skeletons and are easily tunable for diverse types of reactions (Figure 1.2). The presence of the 1,2-aminoalcohol subunit containing the highly basic and bulky quinuclidine, which complements the proximal Lewis acidic hydroxyl function, is primarily responsible for their catalytic activity. 

The complex obtained from commercially available chiral a-amino acids (AA) with Cu + ion induces asymmetry in the Diels-Alder reaction of 31 (R = H) with 32. By using 10% Cu(II)-AA (AA = L-abrine) the cycloaddition occurs e/iJo-stereoselectively in 48 h at 0°C with high yield and with acceptable enantioselectivity ee = 1A%). This is the first example of enantioselective Lewis-acid catalysis of an organic reaction in water [9b]. 

Lipase catalysis is often used for enantioselective production of chiral compounds. Lipase induced the enantioselective ring-opening polymerization of racemic lactones. In the lipase-catalyzed polymerization of racemic (3-BL, the enantioselec-tivity was low an enantioselective polymerization of (3-BL occurred by using thermophilic lipase to give (/ )-enriched PHB with 20-37% enantiomeric excess (ee). ... 

Catalytic amounts of chiral amino alcohols both catalyze the reactions of alkylzinc reagents with aldehydes and induce a high degree of enantioselec-tivity. Two examples are given below. Formulate a mechanism for this catalysis. Suggest transition structures consistent with the observed enantioselectivity. 

Activation of a C-H bond requires a metallocarbenoid of suitable reactivity and electrophilicity.105-115 Most of the early literature on metal-catalyzed carbenoid reactions used copper complexes as the catalysts.46,116 Several chiral complexes with Ce-symmetric ligands have been explored for selective C-H insertion in the last decade.117-127 However, only a few isolated cases have been reported of impressive asymmetric induction in copper-catalyzed C-H insertion reactions.118,124 The scope of carbenoid-induced C-H insertion expanded greatly with the introduction of dirhodium complexes as catalysts. Building on initial findings from achiral catalysts, four types of chiral rhodium(n) complexes have been developed for enantioselective catalysis in C-H activation reactions. They are rhodium(n) carboxylates, rhodium(n) carboxamidates, rhodium(n) phosphates, and < // < -metallated arylphosphine rhodium(n) complexes. 

Lewis acid catalysis is not limited to cases in which increased yields or enhanced selectivities are desired. Lewis acids offer also the possibility to induce chiral information leading to enantioselective product formation. The enantioselective induction by chiral Lewis acids found widespread application in organic synthesis, especially in the synthesis of natural products with many chiral centres. An enantioselective Diels-Alder reaction is the key step in the synthesis of an iodolactone prostaglandine precursor (Scheme 6).88... 

Buffer catalysis has been applied to induce chiral induction by enantio-selective protonation remarkable enantiomeric excess was achieved in the photodeconjugation of a,/3-unsaturated ketones and esters by using chiral catalysts for the ketonization of photoenols in aprotic solvents.29... 

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