Chiral enolates aldol stereoselection

Among the most useful carbonyl derivatives are (V-acyloxazolidinones, and as we shall see in Section 2.3.4, they provide facial selectivity in aldol addition reactions. l,3-Thiazoline-2-thiones constitute another useful type of chiral auxiliary, and they can be used in conjunction with Bu2B03SCF3,44 Sn(03SCF3)2,45 or TiCl446 for generation of enolates. The stereoselectivity of the reactions is consistent with formation of a Z-enolate and reaction through a cyclic TS. 

Now, we examine the interaction of chiral aldehyde (-)-96 with chiral enolate (S )-lOOb. This aldol reaction gives 104 and 105 in a ratio of 104 105 > 100 1. Changing the chirality of the enolate reverses the result Compound 104 and 105 are synthesized in a ratio of 1 30 (Scheme 3-38).66 The two reactions (—)-96 + (S )-lOOb and (—)-96 + (7 )-100b are referred to as the matched and mismatched pairs, respectively. Even in the mismatched pair, stereoselectivity is still acceptable for synthetic purposes. Not only is the stereochemical course of the aldol reaction fully under control, but also the power of double asymmetric induction is clearly illustrated. 

If stoichiometric quantities of the chiral auxiliary are used (i.e., if the chiral auxiliary is covalently bonded to the molecule bearing the prochiral centres) there are in principle three possible ways of achieving stereoselection in an aldol adduct i) condensation of a chiral aldehyde with an achiral enolate ii) condensation of an achiral aldehyde with a chiral enolate, and iii) condensation of two chiral components. Whereas Evans [14] adopted the second solution, Masamune studied the "double asymmetric induction" approach [22aj. In this context, the relevant work of Heathcock on "relative stereoselective induction" and the "Cram s rule problem" must be also considered [23]. The use of catalytic amounts of an external chiral auxiliary in order to create a local chiral environment, will not be considered here. 

Diastereomer analysis on the unpurified aldol adduct 52b revealed that the total syn anti diastereoselection was 400 1 whereas enantioselective induction in the syn products was 660 1. On the other hand, Evans in some complementary studies also found that in the condensation of the chiral aldehyde 53 with an achiral enolate 56a only a slight preference was noted for the anti-Cram aldol diastereomer 58a (58a 57a = 64 36). In the analogous condensation of the chiral enolate 56b. however, the yn-stereoselection was approximately the same (57b 58b > 400 1) as that noted for enolate 49 but with the opposite sense of asymmetric induction (Scheme 9.17). Therefore, it can be concluded that enolate chirality transfer in these systems strongly dominates the condensation process with chiral aldehydes. 

Transfer of chirality in aldol reactions has been attempted using / -allenyl ester enolates. These ambident nucleophiles have an axis of chirality, and such compounds have been less utilized in stereoselective reactions. They are prepared by transmetallation of the... 

S. Masamune, S. A. Ali, D. L. Snitman, and D. S. Garvey, Highly stereoselective aldol condensation using an enantioselective chiral enolate, Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. Engl. 79 557 (1980). 

Stereoselective syntheses of several unnatural amino acids were required to initiate this work. Evans group used asymmetric reactions of chiral enolates to generate these starting materials, as illustrated in the diagram shown below. In this particular example, an isothiocyanate functionality traps the alcohol of an aldol product giving a thiooxazolidinone that provides O- and N-protection in subsequent steps. 

Ester Enolate Aldol Additions to Aldehydes. Among the first examples of aldol additions employing chiral Lewis bases as catalysts were the additions of trichlorosilyl ketene acetals to aldehydes. Silyl ketene acetal 7 could be generated by metathesis of methyl tributylstannylacetate with SiCL. Treatment of 7 with benzaldehyde and 10 mol % of a phosphoramide in CH2CI2 at —78°C afforded aldol products in good to high yields with moderate enantioselectivities for all phosphoramides employed. Reaction of 7 with pivalaldehyde provided aldol products in similar yields and with slightly improved enantioselectivities. The increase in stereoselection is presumably attributed to a less com-... 

Chiral 2-sulfinylcyclohexanones react with lithium alkyl acetates (i.e. lithium ester enolates) to produce alcohols with fom contiguous chiral centres. This stereoselective aldol reaction is proposed to depend upon tricoordination by lithium of the enolate, sulfinyl, and carbonyl oxygens of the substrates. 

Another example of this methodology has appeared recently from Masamune and coworkers in connection with a total synthesis of bryostatin (equation 67). The salient point here is the demonstrated utility of the thiol ester, prepared directly through stereoselective boron enolate aldol condensation. Notice Aat no further activation or removal of a chiral auxiliary is necessary for this transformation, unlike other related aldol methodology. 

Goodman, J. M., Kahn, S. D., Paterson, I. Theoretical studies of aldol stereoselectivity the development of a force field model for enol borinates and the investigation of chiral enolate -face selectivity. J. Org. Chem. 1990, 55, 3295-3303. 

Bernard , A., Capelli, A. M., Comotti, A., Gennari, C., Gardner, M., Goodman, J. M., Paterson, I. Origins of stereoselectivity in chiral boron enolate aldol reactions a computational study using transition state modeling. Tetrahedron 1991, 47, 3471-3484. 

New auxiliaries and reaction methods are now available for the stereoselective synthesis of all members of the stereochemical family of propionate aldol additions. These also include improvements on previously reported methods that by insightful modification of the original reaction conditions have led to considerable expansion of the versatility of the process. In addition to novel auxiliary-based systems, there continue to be unexpected observations in diastereoselective aldol addition reactions involving chiral aldehyde/achiral enolate, achiral aldehyde/chir-al enolate, and chiral aldehyde/chiral enolate reaction partners. These stereochemical surpri.ses underscore the underlying complexity of the reaction process and how much we have yet to understand. 

Finally we ll have a quick look at how combinations of these methods have been applied. In the aldol reactions we have looked at so far there has been no chirality at the start. Both the aldehyde and the enolate have been achiral species that have reacted in a stereoselective way to give a particular diastereomer. With the aldol reaction there is a lot of opportunity to introduce aspects of chirality. The enolate could be chiral as could the aldehyde. In addition to this, the whole reaction could be mediated by a chiral catalyst. Although chiral enolates are most commonly associated with asymmetric methods (most famously the method of Evans in Chapter 27) it is important to remember that the components could just as easily be chiral and racemic. The diastereoselectivity that allows the Evans s chemistry to work with optically pure materials will operate whether the auxiliary is optically pure or not. 

The high syn stereoselectivity attained in zirconium enolate aldol reactions has proved useful in complex natural product synthesis. The zirconium-mediated aldol reaction of the chiral ethyl ketone (9) with a chiral aldehyde has been used by Masamune et al. to give selectively adduct (10), which was further elaborated into the ansa chain of rifamycin S (equation 1). Good enolate diastereofacial selectivity is also obtained here and leads to a predominance of one of the two possible syn adducts. A zirconium enolate aldol reaction also features in the Deslongchamps formal total synthesis of erythromycin A, where the di(cyclopentadienyl)chiorozirconium enolate from methyl propionate adds with high levels of Cram selectivity to the chiral aldehyde (11) to give the syn adduct (12 equation 2). A further example is... 

In some cases titanium enolates give as good, if not better, stereoselectivity as the corresponding boron enolate aldol reactions (Volume 2, Chapter 1.7). For example, the tri(isopropoxy)titanium enolate of the chiral ethyl ketone (27) has been found to undergo aldol reactions with aldehydes with very high dia-... 

The stereoselectivity of the aldol additions shown in Schemes 5.25 and 5.26 are obviously the result of a complex series of factors, among which are the Felkin-Anh preference dictated by the a-substituent on the aldehyde, the proximal stereocenters on the enolate, etc. Additionally, the more remote stereocenters, such as at the p-position of the aldehyde, may influence the selectivity of these types of reactions. Evans has begun an investigation into some of the more subtle effects on crossed aldol selectivity, such as protecting groups at a remote site on the enolate [131], and of P-substituents on the aldehyde component [132], and also of matched and mismatched stereocenters at the a and P positions of an aldehyde (double asymmetric induction) [133]. Further, the effect of chiral enolates adding to a,P-disubstituted aldehydes has been evaluated [134]. The latter turns out to be a case of triple asymmetric induction, with three possible outcomes fully matched, partially matched, and one fully mismatched trio. 

Mandelic acid and its derivatives are utilized as convenient precursors for the introduction of a chiral center, and they possess the extra advantage of bearing a useful functional group. Many mandelic acid derivatives also act as chiral auxiliaries for the induction of a chiral center in stereoselective transformations. Numerous natural products, such as macrolides and ionophore antibiotics, possess a carbon framework that may be viewed synthetically as arising from a sequence of highly stereo- and enantioselective aldol condensations. Boron enolates, chiral auxiliaries derived from mandelic acids 1 or 2, provide remarkably high aldol stereoselectivity. 

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