Conjugated dienes chirality

The catalytic enantioselective cycloaddition reaction of carbonyl compounds with conjugated dienes has been in intensive development in recent years with the main focus on synthetic aspects the number of mechanistic studies has been limited. This chapter will focus on the development and understanding of cycloaddition reactions of carbonyl compounds with chiral Lewis acid catalysts for the preparation of optically active six-membered ring systems. 

Danishefsky et al. were probably the first to observe that lanthanide complexes can catalyze the cycloaddition reaction of aldehydes with activated dienes [24]. The reaction of benzaldehyde la with activated conjugated dienes such as 2d was found to be catalyzed by Eu(hfc)3 16 giving up to 58% ee (Scheme 4.16). The ee of the cycloaddition products for other substrates was in the range 20-40% with 1 mol% loading of 16. Catalyst 16 has also been used for diastereoselective cycloaddition reactions using chiral 0-menthoxy-activated dienes derived from (-)-menthol, giving up to 84% de [24b,c] it has also been used for the synthesis of optically pure saccharides. 

The major developments of catalytic enantioselective cycloaddition reactions of carbonyl compounds with conjugated dienes have been presented. A variety of chiral catalysts is available for the different types of carbonyl compound. For unactivated aldehydes chiral catalysts such as BINOL-aluminum(III), BINOL-tita-nium(IV), acyloxylborane(III), and tridentate Schiff base chromium(III) complexes can catalyze highly diastereo- and enantioselective cycloaddition reactions. The mechanism of these reactions can be a stepwise pathway via a Mukaiyama aldol intermediate or a concerted mechanism. For a-dicarbonyl compounds, which can coordinate to the chiral catalyst in a bidentate fashion, the chiral BOX-copper(II)... 

The use of chiral bis(oxazoline) copper catalysts has also been often reported as an efficient and economic way to perform asymmetric hetero-Diels-Alder reactions of carbonyl compounds and imines with conjugated dienes [81], with the main focus on the application of this methodology towards the preparation of biologically valuable synthons [82]. Only some representative examples are listed below. For example, the copper complex 54 (Scheme 26) has been successfully involved in the catalytic hetero Diels-Alder reaction of a substituted cyclohexadiene with ethyl glyoxylate [83], a key step in the total synthesis of (i )-dihydroactinidiolide (Scheme 30). 

Fig. 14A-C Chromatography of the racemic monoepoxy derivatives (I—III) of Z3,Z6,Z9-18 on chiral HPLC columns A Chiralpak AD B Chiralpak AS C Chiralcel OJ-R. The solvent system for the former two normal-phase columns is 0.1% 2-propanol in n-hexane (0.45 ml/min), and that of the third column is 15% water in MeOH (0.45 ml/min). Homo-conjugated dienes, epo3,Z6,Z9-18 H (I) and Z3,Z6,epo9-18 H (III), were detected by UV (215 nm), and Z3,epo6,Z9-18 H (II) was detected by RID. The earlier eluting isomers have a 3S,4R, 6S,7R, or 9R,10S configuration...

INAS reactions of carbonates of 3,5-dienyl alcohols (i. e., involving a conjugated diene moiety) [72] and 3,4-dienyl alcohols (i. e., having an allene moiety) [73] also proceed smoothly to furnish the corresponding (3,y-unsaturated esters. The reaction of 4-silyl- or 4-stannyl-3,4-dienyl carbonate having axial chirality proceeds with excellent chirality transfer, as exemplified in Eq. 9.39, thereby affording a novel access to optically active a-substituted p.y-unsaturated esters [73],... 

The axially chiral (allenylmethyl) silanes 110 were also prepared in optically active form using chiral Pd catalysts [98]. For the asymmetric synthesis of 110, a Pd/(R)-segphos system was much better in terms of enantioselectivity than the Pd/(R)-binap catalyst. Under the optimized conditions, 110m and llOt were obtained in 79% ee (57% yield) and 87% ee (63% yield), respectively (Scheme 3.56). The enantio-merically enriched (allenylmethyl) silanes 110 served for Lewis acid-promoted SE reaction with tBuCH(OMe)2 to give conjugated dienes 111 with a newly formed chiral carbon center (Scheme 3.56). During the SE reaction, the allenic axial chirality was transferred to the carbon central chirality with up to 88% transfer efficiency. 

The Cotton effects may be classified into three types168 those arising from chirally perturbed local achiral chromophores (ketones, /i.y-unsaturated ketones, double bonds, benzoates, aromatic compounds) those arising from inherently achiral chromophores, such as conjugated dienes or a,/3-unsaturated ketones those arising from interaction of the various electric transition moments when two or more chromophores which are chirally disposed are positioned nearby in space, intra- or intermolecularly (exciton chirality method)169. 

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