Catalyst system enantioselectivity

The indole and pyrrole rings are incorporated into many biologically active molecules. Therefore, the functionalization of indole and pyrrole cores via Michael-type additions has been discussed. This chapter especially focuses on studies of the last 10 years on catalyst systems, enantioselective synthesis and the design of natural products or biological active molecules as related to Michael additions of indole and pyrrole. 

Chiral salen chromium and cobalt complexes have been shown by Jacobsen et al. to catalyze an enantioselective cycloaddition reaction of carbonyl compounds with dienes [22]. The cycloaddition reaction of different aldehydes 1 containing aromatic, aliphatic, and conjugated substituents with Danishefsky s diene 2a catalyzed by the chiral salen-chromium(III) complexes 14a,b proceeds in up to 98% yield and with moderate to high ee (Scheme 4.14). It was found that the presence of oven-dried powdered 4 A molecular sieves led to increased yield and enantioselectivity. The lowest ee (62% ee, catalyst 14b) was obtained for hexanal and the highest (93% ee, catalyst 14a) was obtained for cyclohexyl aldehyde. The mechanism of the cycloaddition reaction was investigated in terms of a traditional cycloaddition, or formation of the cycloaddition product via a Mukaiyama aldol-reaction path. In the presence of the chiral salen-chromium(III) catalyst system NMR spectroscopy of the crude reaction mixture of the reaction of benzaldehyde with Danishefsky s diene revealed the exclusive presence of the cycloaddition-pathway product. The Mukaiyama aldol condensation product was prepared independently and subjected to the conditions of the chiral salen-chromium(III)-catalyzed reactions. No detectable cycloaddition product could be observed. These results point towards a [2-i-4]-cydoaddition mechanism. 

Combination of nickel bromide (or nickel acetylacetonate) and A. A -dibutylnorephcdrinc catalyzed the enantioselective conjugate addition of dialkylzincs to a./Tunsaturated ketones to afford optically active //-substituted ketones in up to ca. 50% ee53. Use of the nickel(II) bipyridyl-chiral ligand complex in acetonitrile/toluenc as an in situ prepared catalyst system afforded the //-substituted ketones 2, from aryl-substituted enones 1, in up to 90% ee54. 

Fueled by the success of the Mn (salen) catalysts, new forays have been launched into the realm of hybrid catalyst systems. For example, the Mn-picolinamide-salicylidene complexes (i.e., 13) represent novel oxidation-resistant catalysts which exhibit higher turnover rates than the corresponding Jacobsen-type catalysts. These hybrids are particularly well-suited to the low-cost-but relatively aggressive-oxidant systems, such as bleach. In fact, the epoxidation of trans-P-methylstyrene (14) in the presence of 5 mol% of catalyst 13 and an excess of sodium hypochlorite proceeds with an ee of 53%. Understanding of the mechanistic aspects of these catalysts is complicated by their lack of C2 symmetry. For example, it is not yet clear whether the 5-membered or 6-membered metallocycle plays the decisive role in enantioselectivity however, in any event, the active form is believed to be a manganese 0x0 complex <96TL2725>. 

In order to achieve a true comparison between both catalytic systems, colloidal and molecular, which display very different reaction rates, a series of experiments were carried out with the homogeneous molecular system, decreasing the catalyst concentration in the studied allylic alkylation reaction. The reaction evolution is monitored taking samples at different reaction times and analysing each of them by NMR spectroscopy (to determine the conversion) and HPLC chromatography with chiral column (to determine the enantioselectivity of I and II). For molecular catalyst systems, the Pd/substrate ratio was varied between 1/100 and 1/10,000. For the latter ratio, the initial reaction rate was found comparable to that of the colloidal system (Figure 2a), but interestingly the conversion of the substrate is quasi complete after ca. 100 h in... 

This interpretation was supported by further investigations by GiacomelH and coworkers [73]. Racemic 4-phenyl-l-hexene was kineticaUy resolved by isomerization of the double bond using a catalyst system consisting of Al Buj, (R)-N,N-di-methyl-l-phenylethylamine and Ni(mesal)2. Very poor enantioselectivities (ee < 0.3%) were observed for both the isomerization product and the unreacted alkene. The authors note that it is essential to first react the alane with the chiral amine. No... 

As an extension of this work, these authors have applied this catalyst system to vinylogous asymmetric Mukaiyama-type aldol reactions, involving silyl vinyl ketene acetals and pyruvate esters. These reactions afforded the corresponding y,5-unsaturated a-hydroxy diesters with quaternary centres in high yields and enantioselectivities of up to 99% ee (Scheme 10.25). It was shown that the presence of CF3CH2OH as an additive facilitated the turnover of the catalyst. 

Many enantioselective catalysts have been developed for reduction of functional groups, particularly ketones. BINAP complexes of Ru(II)C12 or Ru(II)Br2 give good enantioselectivity in reduction of (3-ketoesters.49 This catalyst system has been shown to be subject to acid catalysis.50 Thus in the presence of 0.1 mol % HC1, reduction proceeds smoothly at 40 psi of H2 at 40° C. 

Enantioselective hydrogenation of 2,3-butanedione and 3,4-hexanedione has been studied over cinchonidine - Pt/Al203 catalyst system in the presence or absence of achiral tertiary amines (quinuclidine, DABCO) using solvents such as toluene and ethanol. Kinetic results confirmed that (i) added achiral tertiary amines increase both the reaction rate and the enantioselectivity, (ii) both substrates have a strong poisoning effect, (iii) an accurate purification of the substrates is needed to get adequate kinetic data. The observed poisoning effect is attributed to the oligomers formed from diketones. 

Pt/Al2C>3-cinchona alkaloid catalyst system is widely used for enantioselective hydrogenation of different prochiral substrates, such as a-ketoesters [1-2], a,p-diketones, etc. [3-5], It has been shown that in the enantioselective hydrogenation of ethyl pyruvate (Etpy) under certain reaction conditions (low cinchonidine concentration, using toluene as a solvent) achiral tertiary amines (ATAs triethylamine, quinuclidine (Q) and DABCO) as additives increase not only the reaction rate, but the enantioselectivity [6], This observation has been explained by a virtual increase of chiral modifier concentration as a result of the shift in cinchonidine monomer - dimer equilibrium by ATAs [7],... 

In another reaction dendritic pyridine derivatives such as 82 or 83 were tested as co-catalysts for enantioselective cyclopropanation of styrene with ethyl diazoacetate [102]. Using catalyst 82, enantiomer ratios of up to 55 45 were obtained. However, with catalyst 83 bearing larger branches yields and selectivities did not increase. The relatively low selectivities were rationalized by the presence of a large number of different conformations that this non-rigid system may adopt. 

Krische and coworkers [44] developed a Rh-catalyzed asymmetric domino Michael/aldol reaction for the synthesis of substituted cyclopentanols and cyclohex-anols. In this process, three contiguous stereogenic centers, including a quaternary center, are formed with excellent diastereo- and enantioselectivity. Thus, using an enantiopure Rh-BINAP catalyst system and phenyl boronic acid, substrates 2-108 are converted into the correspondding cyclized products 2-109 in 69-88% yield and with 94 and 95% ee, respectively (Scheme 2.24). 

The most active palladium catalyst system developed for the asymmetric hydrosilylation of cyclopentadiene (Scheme 23) involves the use of the (/ )-MOP-phen ligand (38), which shows significant enhancement of enantioselectivity compared to (R)-MeO-MOP (80% ee from (38), 39% ee from (36a)).114 Other phosphine ligands that afford active palladium catalysts for the same transformation include the /3-7V-sulfonylaminoalkylphosphine (39) and phosphetane ligand (40) (Equation (13)).115-117 A comparison of the enantioselectivities of these ligands for the palladium-catalyzed hydrosilylation of cyclopentadiene is given in Table 8. 

The catalyst system employed was the cationic rhodium solvent complex [Rh(P-P)S2]+ (P-P = BINAP, CHIRAPHOS, S = solvent). The BINAP ligand enhances the activity of the complex (Table 10), although additional studies have revealed that both the solvent and the substituents on Si influence the levels of enantioselectivity (Scheme 29).131,132... 

Asymmetric hydrogenation of nitrones in an iridium catalyst system, prepared from [IrCl(cod)]2, (S)-BINAP, NBu 4 BH4, gives with high enantioselectivity the corresponding A-hydroxylamines which are important biologically active compounds and precursors of amines (480). Further reduction of hydroxylamines to secondary amines or imines can be realized upon treatment with Fe/AcOH (479), or anhydrous titanium trichloride in tetrahydrofuran (THF) at room temperature (481). 

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