Chiral dialkylzincs

Pineschi and Feringa reported that chiral copper phosphoramidite catalysts mediate a regiodivergent kinetic resolution (RKR) of cyclic unsaturated epoxides with dialkylzinc reagents, in which epoxide enantiomers are selectively transformed into different regioisomers (allylic and homoallylic alcohols) [90]. The method was also applied to both s-cis and s-trans cyclic allylic epoxides (Schemes 7.45 and 7.46,... 

Since the addition of dialkylzinc reagents to aldehydes can be performed enantioselectively in the presence of a chiral amino alcohol catalyst, such as (-)-(1S,2/ )-Ar,A -dibutylnorephedrine (see Section 1.3.1.7.1.), this reaction is suitable for the kinetic resolution of racemic aldehydes127 and/or the enantioselective synthesis of optically active alcohols with two stereogenic centers starting from racemic aldehydes128 129. Thus, addition of diethylzinc to racemic 2-phenylpropanal in the presence of (-)-(lS,2/ )-Ar,W-dibutylnorephedrine gave a 75 25 mixture of the diastereomeric alcohols syn-4 and anti-4 with 65% ee and 93% ee, respectively, and 60% total yield. In the case of the syn-diastereomer, the (2.S, 3S)-enantiomer predominated, whereas with the twtf-diastereomer, the (2f ,3S)-enantiomer was formed preferentially. 

Formation of C-C Bonds Using Dialkylzinc Reagents Under Chiral Catalysis... 

Table 26. Addition of Dialkylzinc Reagents to Aldehydes under Chiral Catalysis...

To obtain information about the structural requirements of a ligand capable of catalyzing the addition of dialkylzincs to aldehydes, various simple amines, alcohols and amino acid derived amino alcohols were tested as chiral catalysts (Table 27). 

While the mechanism of the ammonium salt catalyzed alkylation is unclear, in polar solvents the enantioselectivity of the addition of dialkylzincs to aldehydes generally drops considerably, probably due to uncatalyzed product formation or complexation of the zinc reagent with the polar solvent rather than with the chiral auxiliary. 

Optically active alkynyl alcohols can, however, be conveniently prepared by the addition of dialkylzinc reagents of alkynyl aldehydes catalyzed by the chiral ligand (S)-l-methyl-a,a-diphenyl-2-pyrrolidine methanol33-34. 

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. 

Asymmetric addition to ketimine in a reagent controlled manner has seldom been reported, even by 2008. When we investigated the potential for tbis asymmetric addition around 1992, there were no known examples. In 1990, Tomioka et al., reported the first asymmetric addition of alkyl lithium to N-p-methoxyphenyl aldo-imines in the presence ofa chiral (3-amino ether with 40-64% ee [8] (Scheme 1.11). In 1992, Katritzky reported the asymmetric addition of Et2Zn to in situ prepared N-acyl imine in the presence of a chiral (3-amino alcohol with 21-70% ee [15] (Scheme 1.12). In the same year, Soai et al., reported the asymmetric addition of dialkylzinc to diphenylphosphinoyl imines in the presence of chiral (3-amino alcohols with 85-87% ee [16] (Scheme 1.13). These three reports were, to the best of... 

Kitamura and Noyori have reported mechanistic studies on the highly diastere-omeric dialkylzinc addition to aryl aldehydes in the presence of (-)-i-exo-(dimethylamino)isoborneol (DAIB) [33]. They stated that DAIB (a chiral (i-amino alcohol) formed a dimeric complex 57 with dialkylzinc. The dimeric complex is not reactive toward aldehydes but a monomeric complex 58, which exists through equilibrium with the dimer 57, reacts with aldehydes via bimetallic complex 59. The initially formed adduct 60 is transformed into tetramer 61 by reaction with either dialkylzinc or aldehydes and regenerates active intermediates. The high enantiomeric excess is attributed to the facial selectivity achieved by clear steric differentiation of complex 59, as shown in Scheme 1.22. 

Further optimization of this reaction was carried out with TFE as an achiral adduct, since reaction with TFE is much faster than that with neopentyl alcohol. We found that dimethyl- and diethylzinc were equally effective, and the chiral zinc reagent could be prepared by mixing the chiral modifier, the achiral alcohol and dialkylzinc reagent in any order without affecting the conversion and selectivity of the reaction. However, the ratio of chiral to achiral modifier does affect the efficiency of the reaction. Less than 1 equiv of the chiral modifier lowered the ee %. For example with 0.8 equiv of 46 the enantiomeric excess of 53 was only 58.8% but with 1 equiv of 46 it was increased to 95.6%. Reaction temperature has a little effect on the enantiomeric excess. Reactions with zinc alkoxide derived for 46 and TFE gave 53 with 99.2% ee at 0°C and 94.0% ee at 40°C. 

Seebach and coworkers have developed enantioselective conjugate additions of primary dialkylzinc reagents to 2-aryl- and 2-heteroaryl-nitroalkenes mediated by titanium-TADDO-Lates (Eq. 4.90). x a TADDOLs and their derivatives are excellent chiral auxiliaries.9611... 

Tanaka et al.28 have synthesised a series of (S)-chiral Schiff bases as the highly active (yield 69-99%) and enatioselective (ee 50-96%) catalysts in the reaction of addition of dialkylzinc to aldehydes. The stereochemistry of the asymmetric addition was suggested. In a transition state when S-chiral Schiff base was used as chiral source, the alkyl nucleophile attacked Re face of the activated aldehyde and formed the R-configuration alkylated product [13]. 

Pu and co-workers incorporated atropisomeric binaphthols in polymer matrixes constituted of binaphthyl units, the macromolecular chiral ligands obtained being successfully used in numerous enantioselective metal-catalyzed reactions,97-99 such as asymmetric addition of dialkylzinc reagents to aldehydes.99 Recently, they also synthesized a stereoregular polymeric BINAP ligand by a Suzuki coupling of the (R)-BINAP oxide, followed by a reduction with trichlorosilane (Figure 10).100... 

In the reported enantioselective additions of dialkylzincs and diphenylzinc to aldehydes, a great variety of structurally different ligands with different kinds of chirality have been used. A very detailed account of major developments in this area up to the year of 2001 can be found in a review of L. Pu and H.-B. Yu.2 0 The majority of... 

The idea of Hoveyda with co-workers to employ their peptide ligands (e.g., 295) as chiral inductors in allylic substitutions with dialkylzincs turned out to be very rewarding.399-401 As a result of meticulous screening of numerous optically active ligands, copper salts, and substrates under various conditions, they achieved excellent results for aliphatic alkenes. Particularly, allylic substitution products with tertiary 297 and quaternary 299 carbon centers were obtained regioselectively and with 78-96% ee (Scheme 151).401... 

A summary of other chiral ligands with corresponding enantioselectivities in the copper-catalyzed 1,4-addition of dialkylzinc to cyclic enones is shown in Figure 5.55-58... 

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