Copper catalysts Kharasch-Sosnovsky reactions

The allylic acyloxylation of alkenes, the Kharasch-Sosnovsky reaction, Eq. 81, would be an effective route to nonracemic allylic alcohol derivatives, if efficient, enantioselective catalysts were available. The reaction is mediated by a variety of copper salts, and as such, has been the target of considerable research in an attempt to render the process enantioselective. The original reaction conditions described by Kharasch require high temperatures when CuBr is used as the catalyst (93). However, the use of CuOTf (PhH)0 5 allows the reaction to proceed at temperatures as low as -20°C. Unfortunately, long reaction times are endemic in these processes and the use of excess alkene (2-100 equiv) is conventional. Most yields reported in this field are based on the oxidant. 

The application of dinuclear metal catalysts to the Kharasch-Sosnovsky reaction is mechanistically intriguing due to their illustrated role in mediating biological oxidations (119). Fahmi (120) examined a variety of dinucleating ligands with Cu(MeCN)4PF6 as catalysts in the allylic oxidation of cyclohexene, Eq. 102. In these studies, early results have been inferior to those obtained from bis(oxa-zoline)-copper catalysts. 

In 1965, Denny et al. for the first time reported a catalytic asymmetric Kharasch-Sosnovsky reaction by using Cu(II)-(a)-ethyl camphorate as a catalyst, though enantioselectivity was low (Scheme 9) [21]. A quarter of a century later, natural or synthetic amino acids were introduced as chiral auxiliaries and much improved enantioselectivity (up to 65% ee) was achieved (Scheme 10) [22]. Although no detailed information on the structures of these copper complexes has been obtained, the observed non-linear relationship between the ee of the chiral auxiliary and the ee of the product suggests that the copper-amino acid complex is not monomeric but instead is oligomeric (at least dimeric) species [22e]. 

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