Conjugated enantioselectivity

Initial studies on the Jacobsen-Katsuki epoxidation reaction identified conjugated eyelie and acyelic cw-disubstituted olefins as the class of olefins best suited for the epoxidation reaetion. " Indeed a large variety of c/s-disubstituted olefins have been found to undergo epoxidation with a high degree of enantioselectivity. 2,2"-Dimethylehromene derivatives are especially good substrates for the epoxidation reaetion. Table 1.4.1 lists a variety of examples with their corresponding reference. 

The Jacobsen-Katsuki epoxidation reaction has found wide synthetic utility in both academia and industrial settings. As described previously, the majority of olefin classes, when conjugated, undergo Mn(salen)-catalyzed epoxidation in good enantioselectivity. In this section, more specific synthetic utilities are presented. 

This chapter will focus on the development of catalytic enantioselective cycloaddition reactions of carbonyl compounds with conjugated dienes (Scheme 4.1) [3]. 

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. 

Chiral salen chromium and cobalt complexes have been shown by Jacobsen et al. to catalyze an enantioselective cycloaddition reaction of carbonyl compounds with dienes [22]. The cycloaddition reaction of different aldehydes 1 containing aromatic, aliphatic, and conjugated substituents with Danishefsky s diene 2a catalyzed by the chiral salen-chromium(III) complexes 14a,b proceeds in up to 98% yield and with moderate to high ee (Scheme 4.14). It was found that the presence of oven-dried powdered 4 A molecular sieves led to increased yield and enantioselectivity. The lowest ee (62% ee, catalyst 14b) was obtained for hexanal and the highest (93% ee, catalyst 14a) was obtained for cyclohexyl aldehyde. The mechanism of the cycloaddition reaction was investigated in terms of a traditional cycloaddition, or formation of the cycloaddition product via a Mukaiyama aldol-reaction path. In the presence of the chiral salen-chromium(III) catalyst system NMR spectroscopy of the crude reaction mixture of the reaction of benzaldehyde with Danishefsky s diene revealed the exclusive presence of the cycloaddition-pathway product. The Mukaiyama aldol condensation product was prepared independently and subjected to the conditions of the chiral salen-chromium(III)-catalyzed reactions. No detectable cycloaddition product could be observed. These results point towards a [2-i-4]-cydoaddition mechanism. 

The enantioselective cycloaddition reaction catalyzed by chiral BOX-copper(II) complexes has been used for conjugated cyclic dienes, e.g. 1,3-cyclohexadiene 5c, as shown in Scheme 4.21 [9, 32]. This cycloaddition reaction is dependent on sol-... 

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)... 

Quite a number of asymmetric thiol conjugate addition reactions are known [84], but previous examples of enantioselective thiol conjugate additions were based on the activation of thiol nucleophiles by use of chiral base catalysts such as amino alcohols [85], the lithium thiolate complex of amino bisether [86], and a lanthanide tris(binaphthoxide) [87]. No examples have been reported for the enantioselective thiol conjugate additions through the activation of acceptors by the aid of chiral Lewis acid catalysts. We therefore focussed on the potential of J ,J -DBFOX/ Ph aqua complex catalysts as highly tolerant chiral Lewis acid catalyst in thiol conjugate addition reactions. 

Enantioselectivities were found to change sharply depending upon the reaction conditions including catalyst structure, reaction temperature, solvent, and additives. Some representative examples of such selectivity dependence are listed in Scheme 7.42. The thiol adduct was formed with 79% ee (81% yield) when the reaction was catalyzed by the J ,J -DBFOX/Ph aqua nickel(II) complex at room temperature in dichloromethane. Reactions using either the anhydrous complex or the aqua complex with MS 4 A gave a racemic adduct, however, indicating that the aqua complex should be more favored than the anhydrous complex in thiol conjugate additions. Slow addition of thiophenol to the dichloromethane solution of 3-crotonoyl-2-oxazolidinone was ineffective for enantioselectivity. Enantioselectivity was dramatically lowered and reversed to -17% ee in the reaction at -78 °C. A similar tendency was observed in the reactions in diethyl ether and THF. For example, a satisfactory enantioselectivity (80% ee) was observed in the reaction in THF at room temperature, while the selectivity almost disappeared (7% ee) at 0°C. 

Copper-catalyzed Enantioselective Conjugate Addition Reactions of Organozinc Reagents... 

A number of conjugate additions delivering excelent enantioselectivities tlirougli tlie use of organocuprates in tlie presence of stoichiomenic amounts of cliital fnon-transferable) ligands ate known today [7-9],... 

Scheme 2.5) was recently reported by Komatsu, Minakata, and coworkers [12]. The reaction with the (i ,i )-complex 12 provided the first reagent-controlled asymmetric aziridination of conjugated dienes, although enantioselectivities were only low to moderate (20-40% ee). 

The epoxidation of divinyl carbinol constitutes a special case of a dienol epoxida-tion, as the starting diene is not conjugated (Scheme 9.10). Desymmetrization by SAE, followed by a Payne rearrangement, furnishes the vinylepoxide in high yield and with excellent enantioselectivity (compare Table 9.2, Entry 1) [43]. 

The reaction of butyllithium with 1-naphthaldehyde cyclohexylimine in the presence of (/C )-l,2-diphenylethane-1,2-diol dimethyl ether in toluene at —78 °C, followed by treatment with acetate buffer, gave 2-butyl-1,2-dihydronaphthalene-l-carbaldehyde, which was then reduced with sodium borohydride in methanol to afford (1 R,2.S)-2-butyl-1 -hydroxymcthyl-1,2-dihydronaphthalene in 80% overall yield with 91 % ee83. Similarly, the enantioselective conjugate addition of organolithium reagents to several a,/J-unsaturated aldimines took place in the presence of C2-symmetric chiral diethers, such as (/, / )-1,2-butanediol dimethyl ether and (/, / )- ,2-diphenylethane-1,2-diol dimethyl ether. 

Combination of nickel bromide (or nickel acetylacetonate) and A. A -dibutylnorephcdrinc catalyzed the enantioselective conjugate addition of dialkylzincs to a./Tunsaturated ketones to afford optically active //-substituted ketones in up to ca. 50% ee53. Use of the nickel(II) bipyridyl-chiral ligand complex in acetonitrile/toluenc as an in situ prepared catalyst system afforded the //-substituted ketones 2, from aryl-substituted enones 1, in up to 90% ee54. 

In the presence of the corresponding copper(II) catalyst, N-acryloyloxazo-lidinone reacted with various conjugated dienes (cyclic and acychc) with good enantioselectivities in all cases, competing with results obtained for classical catalysts in the case of flexible dienes. Thus the cycloadducts obtained from isoprene or 2,3-dimethyl-1,3-butadiene were synthesized in high yields and good enantioselectivities (92% ee in both cases). 

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