Chirality quaternary nitrogen compounds

Amines with three different substituents are potentially chiral because of the pseudotetrahedral arrangement of the three groups and the lone-pair electrons. Under normal conditions, however, these enantiomers are not separable because of the rapid inversion at the nitrogen center. As soon as the lone-pair electrons are fixed by the formation of quaternary ammonium salts, tertiary amide N-oxide, or any other fixed bonding, the inversion is prohibited, and consequently the enantiomers of chiral nitrogen compounds can be separated. 

Chiral centres encountered in anaesthetics usually have carbon or quaternary nitrogen as the chiral centre. Any compound which contains more than one chiral centre is termed a diastereoisomer by definition. 

The nucleophilic character ofdialkyl sulfides is illustrated by their nucleophilic addition reaction with alkyl halides to form the corresponding sulfonium salts (35) (Scheme 13). Asymmetric sulfonium salts (36) have a tetrahedral configuration therefore, like the analogous chiral saturated carbon compounds, they can be resolved into optical enantiomers (see Chapter 6, p. 81). They are, however, generally less optically stable than sulfoxides, but in sulfonium salts the unshared electron pair can hold its configuration at ordinary temperatures, unlike nitrogen in quaternary ammonium salts, enabling their resolution to be achieved. 

HPLC is one of the most universal methods for determining the enantiomeric composition of substances and mixtures in a short time frame. Its application is not restricted to molecules in which chirality is based on a quaternary carbon atom with four different substituents it can also be employed for compounds containing a chiral silicon, nitrogen, sulfur, or phosphorus atom. Likewise, asymmetric sulfoxides or aziridines, the chirality of which is based on a lone electron pair, can be separated. Chirality can also be traced back to helical structures, as in the case of polymers and proteins to the existence of atropiso-merism, the hindered rotation about a single bond, as observed, for example, in the case of binaphthol, or to spiro compounds. 

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