Catalytic reactions involving enantioselective

The results obtained in reactions involving the two first examples showed a reduced catalytic activity compared to the homogeneous catalyst, a situation that may be due to diffusion problems. Enantioselectivity was similar or slightly lower than in solution, with 80% ee [21] and 58% ee [22] in the epox-idation of ds-/l-methylstyrene with NaOCl providing the best results. Only in the last example was an improvement in enantioselectivity reported from 51% to 91% ee in the epoxidation of a-methylstyrene. Recovery of the catalyst was only considered in one case [21] and a significant decrease in enantioselectivity was observed on reuse. 

The majority of catalytic enantioselective allylation reactions involve the chiral Lewis-acid-catalysed additions of allylsilanes or allylstannanes to carbonyl compounds. Monothiobinaphthol has been used by Woodward et al. as a chiral promoter in the enantioselective catalytic allylation of aryl ketones with impure Sn(allyl)4, prepared from allyl chloride, air-oxidised magnesium and SnCl4. Therefore, the allylation of arylketones in these conditions was achieved very efficiently, since the corresponding allylic alcohols were formed in... 

Several catalytic systems based on copper can also achieve allylic oxidation. These reactions involve induced decomposition of peroxy esters (see Part A, Section 11.1.4). When chiral copper ligands are used, enantioselectivity can be achieved. Table 12.1 shows some results for the oxidation of cyclohexene under these conditions. 

In 1993, we reported that various unsaturated heterocycles can be alkylated with Et-, wPr- and nBuMgCl in the presence of optically pure (EBTHI)ZrCl2 (3a) or (EBTHI)Zr-binol (3b) to afford the derived unsaturated products in >90% ee (cf. 5 6, Scheme 2) [4a]. Many of the simpler five- and six-membered starting materials are available commercially or can be prepared by established procedures. In contrast, catalytic enantioselective reactions involving unsaturated medium ring hetero cycles were not a trivial undertaking the synthesis of these olefinic substrates, by the extant methods, was prohibitively cumbersome. 

The solvent employed in asymmetric catalytic reactions may also have a dramatic influence on the reaction rate as well as the enantioselectivity, possibly because the solvent molecule is also involved in the catalytic cycle. Furthermore, the reaction temperature also has a profound influence on stereoselectivity. The goal of asymmetric hydrogenation or transfer hydrogenation studies is to find an optimal condition with a combination of chiral ligand, counterion, metal, solvent, hydrogen pressure, and reaction temperature under which the reactivity and the stereoselectivity of the reaction will be jointly maximized. 

Catalytic asymmetric desymmetrization as a field is still growing, with new applications appearing weekly. It is evident that advances in this subfield have kept in step with advances in catalysis as a whole. Some spectacular successes have been reported in recent years, and this strategy has been applied to many new reactions. Willis mentions in conclusion to his 1999 review of this field that desymmetrization reactions involving catalytic enantioselective construction of C—C bonds are... 

By contrast with the enantioselective deprotonation of meso oxiranes, there is only a limited number of reports on the kinetic resolution of unsymmetrically substituted oxiranes. This reaction involves the preferential recognition of one of the two enantiomers of a racemic mixture by a chiral reagent to provide both the starting material and the product in enantioenriched form . Several HCLA bases developed for enantioselective deprotonation have been tested as chiral reagent in stoichiometric or catalytic amount for the kinetic resolution of cyclic and linear oxiranes. 

Currently available chiral Diels-Alder catalysts have major limitations with regard to the range of dienes to which they can be applied successfully. Indeed, most of the reported catalytic enantioselective Diels-Alder reactions involve reactive dienes such as cyclopentadiene, but 1,3-butadiene and 1,3-cyclohexadiene have not been successfully utilized without reactive 2-bromoacrolein. To solve this problem, a new class of super-reactive chiral Lewis acid catalysts has been developed from chiral tertiary amino alcohols and BBr3 [24] (Eq. 8A.13). This type of chiral super Lewis acid works well for a,fj-acetylenic aldehydes [25],... 

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