Chiral chromium complexes

In a rather different approach optically active chromium complexes of 2,3-dihydro-1 H-in-denone are used as chiral enolate precursors. These chiral complexes react with 3-buten-2-one in benzene using l,5-diazabicyclo[4.3.0]non-5-ene as the base. The diastereomeric ratio of the product is the same irrespectively of whether the exo- or the Noisomer of the chromium... 

Due to the inherent unsymmetric arene substitution pattern the benzannulation reaction creates a plane of chirality in the resulting tricarbonyl chromium complex, and - under achiral conditions - produces a racemic mixture of arene Cr(CO)3 complexes. Since the resolution of planar chiral arene chromium complexes can be rather tedious, diastereoselective benzannulation approaches towards optically pure planar chiral products appear highly attractive. This strategy requires the incorporation of chiral information into the starting materials which may be based on one of three options a stereogenic element can be introduced in the alkyne side chain, in the carbene carbon side chain or - most general and most attractive - in the heteroatom carbene side chain (Scheme 20). 

The intramolecular cyclization route to p-lactams still provides interest. P-Amino esters (obtained by a Reformatsky-type reaction of an imine and bromoacetates derived from chiral alcohols) are cyclized by the action Grignard reagents to 4-substituted P-lactams with impressive e.e. <96TL4095>. A similar approach through a Reformatsky-type reaction uses tricarbonyl(Ti -benzaldimine)chromium complexes and ultrasound <96T4849>. 3-Methyl-azetidin-2-ones (obtained from 3-amino-2-methylpropionates) have been resolved and their... 

Recently, Lacour, Sauvage and coworkers were able to show that the association of chiral [CuL2] complexes (L=2-R-phen,6-R-bpy and2-iminopyridine) with TRISPHAT 8 leads to an NMR enantiodifferentiation, which allows the determination of the kinetics of racemization of the complexes (bpy=2,2 -bipyri-dine phen=l,10-phenanthroline) [119]. This type of application has recently been reported in conjunction with chiral sandwich-shaped trinuclear silver(l) complexes [122]. Several reports, independent from Lacour s group,have confirmed the efficiency of these chiral shift agents [123-127]. Finally, TRISPHAT can be used to determine the enantiomeric purity of (r] -arene)chromium complexes. These results broaden the field of application of 8 to chiral neutral, and not just cationic, species [114,128,129]. 

The chiral diol 17 derived from tartaric acid is exploited in the titanium-catalyzed asymmetric pinacol coupling in the presence of Zn and MesSiCl to give the corresponding diol in 11-71 ee % [44], The chiral salen ligands 18-20 are used in the titanium-catalyzed enantioselective coupling reaction, which achieves the higher selectivity [45-47]. The chromium complex with TBOxH (21) efficiently catalyzes the asymmetric coupling reaction of both aromatic and aliphatic aldehydes [48]. 

Two methods have been developed to provide enantiomerically enriched cycloadducts using the chromium-mediated [6 + 2]- and [6 + 4]-cycloadditions one involving a chiral resolution and the other involving the attachment of a chiral auxiliary to the triene. The lipase resolution method provides access to either enantiomer of the chromium complex, albeit with moderate enantiomeric excesses (Scheme 34).119 The [6 + 4]- and [6 + 2]-reactions of chiral substrates such as 116 which are available by the attachment of a removable chiral auxiliary (R ) to the triene moiety are highly diastereoselective (Equation (17)).120... 

Mukai et al.39 used a chiral aryl chromium complex to synthesize the taxol side chain via substrate-controlled aldol reaction (Scheme 7-83). 

Benzaldehyde reacts with the diene 28 in the presence of 20 mol% of the chiral boric acids 30 (R = n-Bu, Ph or 2-MeOCgH4), obtained from alkylboric acids and the appropriate derivatives of tartaric acid, at —78 °C for 4-9 h to afford the cis-products 29 in 56-95% yields and 87-97% ee19,20. Benzaldehyde, cinnamaldehyde and various aliphatic aldehydes (n-hexanal, n-heptanal etc) add directly to Danishefsky s diene 4 in ether at —30 °C in the presence of the (R,R)-salen chromium complexes 31 (X = Cl, N3, F or BF4) and 4 A molecular sieves to afford the cycloadducts 32 (e.g. R = Ph, PhCH=CH) in 70-93% ee21. 

Unlike the ferrocenes, the arene complexes of chromium, in particular the arenechromi-umtricarbonyls, have seen much less use in asymmetric catalysis. This is beginning to change, however , and a number of synthetic transformations of arenechromiumtricar-bonyls owe their existence to the formation of planar chiral chromium complexes by... 

The enantioselective lithiation of anisolechromium tricarbonyl was used by Schmalz and Schellhaas in a route towards the natural product (+)-ptilocaulin . In situ hthi-ation and silylation of 410 with ent-h M gave ewf-411 in an optimized 91% ee (reaction carried ont at — 100°C over 10 min, see Scheme 169). A second, substrate-directed lithiation with BuLi alone, formation of the copper derivative and a quench with crotyl bromide gave 420. The planar chirality and reactivity of the chromium complex was then exploited in a nucleophilic addition of dithiane, which generated ptilocaulin precnrsor 421 (Scheme 172). The stereochemistry of componnd 421 has also been used to direct dearomatizing additions, yielding other classes of enones. ... 

Stereoselective deprotonation of componnd 581 is possible (Scheme 233), bnt the yields and enantioselectivities obtained are poorer than for the chromium-complexed analogues (see below). With an internal electrophilic quench it was possible to form the axially chiral benzamide 582 in 89% ee using hthium amide 360 . 

Although slightly outside the scope of this review, an interesting case of stereoselection should be presented here. It has been observed by Gibson (nee Thomas) and coworkers during the deprotonation of tricarbonylchromium complexes of benzyl alkyl ethers by means of the chiral bis(lithiumamide) base 234 (equation 54) . The base removes the benzylic pro-R-H atom in 233 from the most reactive conformation to form the planary chiral intermediate 235. The attack of the electrophile forming 236 proceeds exclusively from the upper face in 235, because the bulky chromium moiety shields the lower face. Simpkins and coworkers extended the method to the enantioselective substitution of the chromium complexes of 1,3-dihydroisobenzofurans . 

Unlike desferrioxamine analogs designed for specific therapeutic purposes described above, chiral DFO analogs that form conformationally unique complexes with iron(lll) were designed to serve as chemical probes of microbial iron(lll) uptake processes. As mentioned above, ferrioxamine B can form a total of five isomers when binding trivalent metal ions, each as a racemic mixture. Muller and Raymond studied three separate, kinetically inert chromium complexes of desferrioxamine B (N-cis,cis, C-cis,cis and trans isomers), which showed the same inhibition of Fe-ferrioxamine B uptake by Streptomyces pilosus. This result may indicate either that (i) ferrioxamine B receptor in this microorganism does not discriminate between geometrical isomers, or that (ii) ferrioxamine B complexes are conformationally poorly defined and are not optimal to serve as probes. 

Jacobsen and coworkers discovered that chiral salicylimidato transition metal complexes activate epoxides in a stereoselective manner. The published mechanism indicates that one Cr° (salen)-N3 with (/ ,/ )-cyclohexyl backbone acts as Lewis acid and coordinates to the oxygen of PO, while a second catalyst molecule transfers the azide to the activated epoxide and thus opens the ring. The coplanar arrangement of the two chromium complexes prefers one enantiomer of PO and so induces stereochemical information [99,100, 121-129]. (cf. also Sect. 8.3) (Fig. 42). 

A further chiral auxiliary-based tactic exploited tricarbonyl( 76-arene)chromium complexes of aromatic imines 71, which reacted under ultrasound (US) irradiation with a-bromoesters in a predictable stereochemical course to give comparable amounts of /S-aminoesters and / -lactams, as outlined in equation 44127. Chromium decomplexation is eventually achieved by photochemical oxidation under air. 

In most cases chiral carbonyl compounds also afford low stereoselectivity. As for the related Passerini reaction, even the use of aldehydes that are known to give excellent asymmetric induction in the reaction with other kinds of C-nucleophiles, results in low or moderate diastereoisomeric ratios. For example, both norbornyl aldehyde 39 [47] and a-alkoxyaldehyde 40 [3, 48] gave drs lower than 2 1 (Scheme 1.16). The same happens with ortho-substituted chromium complex 41 [49], which usually leads to very high asymmetric induction in other nucleophilic additions. Finally, //-substituted aldehyde 42 [50] gave poor results as well. 

The spiro carbon is a stereogenic center in spiropyrans, but because of the achiral structure of the open merocyanine form, the photochromic process will always lead to racemization unless additional chiral moieties are present. When a chiral substituent was introduced, remote from the spiro center, it was possible to isolate diastereo-isomers of the spiropyrans, but rapid epimerization at the spiro center occurred.1441 Diastereoselective switching was successful with 28, in which a stereogenic center was present close to the spiro carbon (Scheme 15).[45] Distinct changes in CD absorption at 250 nm were monitored upon irradiation with UV (250 nm) and with visible light (>530 nm) and a diastereomeric ratio of 1.6 1.0 was calculated for the closed form 28. Furthermore, a temperature-dependent CD effect was observed with this system it was attributed to an inversion of the diastereomeric composition at low temperatures. It might be possible to exploit such effects in dual-mode chiral response systems. A diastereoselective ring-closure was also recently observed in a photochromic N6-spirobenzopyran tricarbonyl chromium complex. 451 ... 

A theoretical study of the chiral recognition of the bis(amino(phenyl)methanol) chromium(O) complexes and chiral discrimination of the dimers of amino(phenyl) methanol linked by HB has been carried out by means of a DFT method, the B3LYP/6-31+G. The results (Fig. 3.24) show that in the chromium complexes, the homochiral one is preferred over the heterochiral one, while the opposite... 

A [1,4]-Brook rearrangement to give an aryllithium product occurs with the arenetricarbonyl chromium complex 76. The chirality of the starting material controls the diastereoselective addition of methyllithium, giving 77 as a single diastereoisomer.59... 

Uemura and Kamikawa have presented a review on the stereoselective synthesis of axially chiral biaryls utilizing planar chiral (arene)chromium complexes [44]. 

The benzannulation affords arene-Cr(CO)3 complexes possessing a plane of chirality resulting from the unsymmetrical arene substitution pattern. This aspect is relevant to stereoselective synthesis, in which enantiopure arene tricarbonyl chromium complexes play a major role [56]. The benzannulation reaction avoids both harsh conditions incompatible with the retention of chiral information and the cumbersome separation of enantiomers, and is thus attractive for the diastereo- and enantioselective synthesis of arene complexes [17b, 57]. 

Other ligands giving >90% ee for the alkylation or amination of 19 have been reported but will not be described in detail. They include derivatives of 3 [36], ferrocene-based ligands [54-57], l.l -binaphthyl-based ligands [58-60], natural product-based ligands such as fenchone [61], cholesterol [62], or carbohydrates [63,64], chiral aryl chromium complexes [65,66], chiral sulfimides [67], newP,N-ligands [19,22,52,53,68-78], and others [79-82]. 

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