Chiral quaternary ammonium catalysts

Other chiral catalysts, which have been used with some degree of success include the quinuclidinium salt (15) [17] and the ephedrinium derivative (16) [18], 

The efficiency of the stereochemical control will be governed by the spatial arrangement of the ion-pair and the reactive substrate or, more precisely, the control 

Catalytic effect of /Y-methyl ephedrinium and related salts on the borohydride reduction of 3,3-dimethyl-1 -phenyl-1 -propan-1 -one 

The overall steric demands of the catalyst and the substrate are important in the spatial arrangement of the H-bonded complex. Consequently, although the less rigid ephedrinium salts have been used with some success, they are generally less effective than the derivatives of the cinchona alkaloids, the rigidity of which imposes a greater stereochemical restraint on the structure of the H-bonded complexes. 

Predictably, the association between the ion-pair and the substrate is influenced by the choice of the organic phase and by the reaction temperature. Polar solvents will not only affect the interaction between the catalysts and substrate, they will also reduce the association of the ion-pair with a resultant increase in free anion over which there is no stereochemical control (Table 12.4). 

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Chiral quaternary ammonium salts in solid state have also been used as catalysts for the enantioselective addition of diethylzinc to aldehydes (Scheme 2-45).112 In most cases, homogeneous chiral catalysts afford higher enantio-selectivities than heterogeneous ones. Scheme 2-45 presents an unusual asymmetric reaction in which chiral catalysts in the solid state afford much higher enantioselectivities than its homogeneous counterpart.112... 

Arai et al.51 reported that by using a catalytic amount of chiral quaternary ammonium salt as a phase transfer catalyst, a catalytic cycle was established in asymmetric HWE reactions in the presence of an inorganic base. Although catalytic turnover and enantiomeric excess for this reaction are not high, this is one of the first cases of an asymmetric HWE reaction proceeding in a catalytic manner (Scheme 8-20). 

Some chiral quaternary ammonium salts are also effective in Michael addition reactions. The Merck catalysts 7 (R=4-CF3, X=Br) and 9 (R=4-CF3, X=Br, 10,11-dihydro) were used tor the Michael additions of 59,61, and 64 to vinyl ketones to give the adducts 60,62, and 65 (isolated as 66), respectively,148,491 with excellent enantioselectivity, as shown in Scheme 19. The Michael addition of the O Donnell imine 23 to the a,(3-unsaturated carbonyl compounds also efficiently proceeded by use of the N-anthracenyl-methyl catalyst 12 (R=allyl, X=Br), giving the Michael adducts 67 (Scheme 20).1251... 

M. Horikawa, J. Bush-Petersen, E. J. Corey, Enantioselective Synthesis of P-Hydroxy-a-amino Acid Esters by Adol Coupling Using a Chiral Quaternary Ammonium Salt as Catalyst , Tetrahedron Lett. 1999, 40, 3843-3846. 

K. Soai, M. Watanabe, Chiral Quaternary Ammonium Salts as Solid State Catalysts for the Enantioselective Addition of Diethylzinc to Aldehydes , J. Chem Soc, Chern. Commun 1990, 43-44. 

The ammonium catalyst can also influence the reaction path and higher yields of the desired product may result, as the side reactions are eliminated. In some cases, the structure of the quaternary ammonium cation may control the product ratio with potentially tautomeric systems as, for example, with the alkylation of 2-naph-thol under basic conditions. The use of tetramethylammonium bromide leads to predominant C-alkylation at the 1-position, as a result of the strong ion-pair binding of the hard quaternary ammonium cation with the hard oxy anion, whereas with the more bulky tetra-n-butylammonium bromide O-alkylation occurs, as the binding between the cation and the oxygen centre is weaker [11], Similar effects have been observed in the alkylation of methylene ketones [e.g. 12, 13]. The stereochemistry of the Darzen s reaction and of the base-initiated formation of cyclopropanes under two-phase conditions is influenced by the presence or absence of quaternary ammonium salts [e.g. 14], whereas chiral quaternary ammonium salts are capable of influencing the enantioselectivity of several nucleophilic reactions (Chapter 12). 

Aldol and Related Condensations As an elegant extension of the PTC-alkylation reaction, quaternary ammonium catalysts have been efficiently utilized in asymmetric aldol (Scheme 11.17a)" and nitroaldol reactions (Scheme ll.lTb) for the constmction of optically active p-hydroxy-a-amino acids. In most cases, Mukaiyama-aldol-type reactions were performed, in which the coupling of sUyl enol ethers with aldehydes was catalyzed by chiral ammonium fluoride salts, thus avoiding the need of additional bases, and allowing the reaction to be performed under homogeneous conditions. " It is important to note that salts derived from cinchona alkaloids provided preferentially iyw-diastereomers, while Maruoka s catalysts afforded awh-diastereomers. 

Asymmetric induction in the Neber rearrangement was also obtained under phase-transfer conditions with chiral quaternary ammonium bromides 544 as catalysts (equation 243). Moderate enantioselectivities (30-70% ee, 60-95% yield) were observed, but there is still an opportunity for extending the full synthetic utility of this classical rearrangement. 

Hori et have recently reported aza crown ether chiral quaternary ammonium salts for the epoxidation of ( )-chalcone with alkaline hydrogen peroxide as the terminal oxidant. The oxidation proceeded in high yield and good enantio-selectivity the success of the reaction depended on the length of the carbon chain on the nitrogen atom. These PTC catalysts are shown in Figure 1.50. 

Some organic reactions can be accomplished by using two-layer systems in which phase-transfer catalysts play an important role (34). The phase-transfer reaction proceeds via ion pairs, and asymmetric induction is expected to emerge when chiral quaternary ammonium salts are used. The ion-pair interaction, however, is usually not strong enough to control the absolute stereochemistry of the reaction (35). Numerous trials have resulted in low or only moderate stereoselectivity, probably because of the loose orientation of the ion-paired intermediates or transition states. These reactions include, but are not limited to, carbene addition to alkenes, reaction of sulfur ylides and aldehydes, nucleophilic substitution of secondary alkyl halides, Darzens reaction, chlorination... 

See Phase-transfer catalysts (this volume) for another example of a chiral quaternary ammonium salt. 

Crown ethers have given impressive enantioselectivites in Michael additions (Chart 10.2). Purely synthetic chiral crowns are of limited use on large scale based on cost although, in general, the crowns are less susceptible to catalyst degradation and, therefore, have higher catalyst turnover numbers than the chiral quaternary ammonium salts. Of interest are crowns with symmetry, aza-crowns, and those with sugars or other chiral-pool units as sources of chirality (Charts 2 and 4). 

Two routes of catalyst decomposition are also possible from alkoxide 29, fragmentation to form an epoxide or O-alkylation and subsequent fragmentation to an enol ether. Both of these tertiary amines can then be IV-alkylated to form new chiral, non-racemic quat salts. The quaternary ammonium catalyst can also be dequatemarized by nucleophiles to a tertiary amine, which can then undergo subsequent reactions [9c, 1 li,26b,87]. 

Recently, Castle and coworkers introduced C3-alkyny]-substituted chiral quaternary ammonium salt of type 41, and evaluated its ability as a chiral phase-transfer catalyst in the aldol reaction between 1 and hydrocinnamaldehyde using BTTP as a base, in which a high level of enantioselectivity (91% ee) was observed for syn-22 (Scheme 2.19) [41],... 

The group of Arai and Nishida investigated the catalytic asymmetric aldol reaction between tert-butyl diazoacetate and various aldehydes under phase-transfer conditions with chiral quaternary ammonium chloride 4c as a catalyst. The reactions were found to proceed smoothly in toluene, even at —40°C, when using 50% RbOH aqueous solution as a base, giving rise to the desired aldol adducts 23 with good enantioselectivities. The resulting 23 can be stereoselectively transformed into the corresponding syn- or anti-P-hydroxy-a-amino acid derivatives (Scheme 2.20) [42],... 

By using glycine diphenylmethyl (Dpm) amide-derived Schiff base 22 as a key substrate and N-spiro chiral quaternary ammonium bromide lg as an ideal catalyst, a high enantioselectivity was achieved, even in the alkylation with less-reactive simple secondary alkyl halides, as shown in Table 5.5 [21]. This system offers a facile access to structurally diverse optically active vicinal diamines in combination with the subsequent reduction (Scheme 5.14) [21]. 

Upon facing the difficulty of stereochemical control in peptide alkylation events, Maruoka and coworkers envisaged that the chiral phase-transfer catalyst should play a crucial role in achieving an efficient chirality transfer, and consequently examined the alkylation of the dipeptide, Gly-L-Phe derivative 57 (Scheme 5.28) [31]. When a mixture of 57 and tetrabutylammonium bromide (TBAB, 2 mol%) in toluene was treated with a 50% KOH aqueous solution and benzyl bromide at 0°C for 4h, the corresponding benzylation product 58 was obtained in 85% yield with the diastereo-meric ratio (DL-58 LL-58) of 54 46 (8% de). In contrast, the reaction with chiral quaternary ammonium bromide (S,S)-lc under similar conditions gave rise to 58 with 55% de. The preferential formation of LL-58 in lower de in the reaction with (R,R)-lc indicated that (R,R)-lc is a mismatched catalyst for this diastereofacial differentiation of 57. Changing the 3,3 -aromatic substituent (Ar) of the catalyst 1 dramatically increased the stereoselectivity, and almost complete diastereocontrol was realized with (S,S)-lg. 

Efficient, highly enantioselective construction of quaternary stereocenter on P-keto esters under phase-transfer conditions has been achieved using N-spiro chiral quaternary ammonium bromide lh as catalyst [32]. This system has a broad generality in terms of the structure of P-keto esters 65 and alkyl halides (Scheme 5.31). 

Maruoka and coworkers recently developed an efficient, highly diastereo- and enantioselective direct aldol reaction of glycine Schiff base 2 with a wide range of aliphatic aldehydes under mild phase-transfer conditions employing N-spiro chiral quaternary ammonium salt li as a key catalyst, as shown in Table 5.12 [41a]. 

Phase-transfer-catalyzed direct Mannich reaction of glycine Schiff base 2 with a-imino ester 79 was achieved with high enantioselectivity by the utilization of N-spiro chiral quaternary ammonium bromide le as catalyst (Table 5.14) [42],... 

The development of various types of chiral phase-transfer catalyst relies largely on the molecular design of both natural product-derived and purely synthetic chiral quaternary ammonium salts. This approach often delivers not only higher reactivity... 

The chiral quaternary ammonium salt 47a with a single tartrate moiety and free hydroxyl groups gave disappointing results for the Michael addition of Schiff s base 20 with tert-butyl acrylate in the presence of CsOH base. However, the benzyl-protected catalyst 47b promoted Michael addition, and the adduct (S)-49 was obtained in 57% yield, although the enantioselectivity remained low (Table 7.6, entry 2). The use of catalyst 48a,b with two tartrate moieties afforded the best results at —60 ° C, and Michael adduct (S)-49 was obtained in good enantioselectivity up to 77% ee (entries 4 and 5). 

The nitroaldol reaction of silyl nitronates with aldehydes promoted by ammonium fluorides, which was originally introduced by Seebach and Colvin in 1978 [24], is a useful method for the preparation of 1,2-functionalized nitroalkanols. Recently, the present authors have succeeded in developing an asymmetric version of high efficiency and stereoselectivity by using a designer chiral quaternary ammonium bifluoride of type 6 as catalyst, which was readily prepared from the corresponding bromide by the modified method C in Scheme 9.5 [25]. 

Diastereo- and enantio-selective cascade of Michael addition and lactonization between various silyl enolates derived from phenyl carboxylates and -unsaturated ketones were successfully carried out by using an efficient organic catalyst, a cinchoni- dine-derived chiral quaternary ammonium phenoxide. In this asymmetric domino reaction, the corresponding tnms-3,4-dihydropyran-2-oncs were obtained in high yields with almost complete diastereoselectivities and good to excellent enantioselectivities.161... 

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