Corey’s catalyst

A final comment has to be made on the reduction of ketone 150 with Corey s catalyst 157 (19). The mechanism (20) involves the formation of transition state complexes such as 158 in which, by interaction with the rest of the molecule the small substituent (Rs) of the ketone points upward and the large substuent (RL) downward. Remarkable, for ,/j-unsaturated ketones the vinyl group is the large one and this is indeed confirmed by our case. The reduction is reagent controlled, but the substrate in-... 

It is interesting to know that the stereoselectivity of the adduct using Corey s catalyst is opposite to that normally observed for oxaza-borolidines generated from A-tosyl derivative of (S)-valine or hexahydrophenyl alanine. 

Enantiomerically pure boron-based Lewis acids have also been used successfully in catalytic aldol reactions. Corey s catalyst (7.10a) provides good enantioselectivity with ketone-derived silyl enol ethers, including compound (7.11). Other oxazaborolidine complexes (7.13) derived from a,a-disubstituted a-amino acids give particularly high enantioselectivity, especially with the disubstituted ketene... 

An ingenious application of Corey s ylide (1) was discovered by the Shea group in 199 7 51,52 ugjj g trialkylboranes as initiator/catalyst and 1 as the monomer, a living... 

Among the many chiral Lewis acid catalysts described so far, not many practical catalysts meet these criteria. For a,/ -unsaturated aldehydes, Corey s tryptophan-derived borane catalyst 4, and Yamamoto s CBA and BLA catalysts 3, 7, and 8 are excellent. Narasaka s chiral titanium catalyst 31 and Evans s chiral copper catalyst 24 are outstanding chiral Lewis acid catalysts of the reaction of 3-alkenoyl-l,2-oxazolidin-2-one as dienophile. These chiral Lewis acid catalysts have wide scope and generality compared with the others, as shown in their application to natural product syntheses. They are, however, still not perfect catalysts. We need to continue the endeavor to seek better catalysts which are more reactive, more selective, and have wider applicability. 

Addition of triethylamine to the oxazaborolidine reaction system can significantly increase the enantioselectivity, especially in dialkyl ketone reductions.79 In 1987, Corey et al.80 reported that the diphenyl derivatives of 79a afford excellent enantioselectivity (>95%) in the asymmetric catalytic reduction of various ketones. This oxazaborolidine-type catalyst was named the CBS system based on the authors names (Corey, Bakshi, and Shibata). Soon after, Corey s group81 reported that another fi-methyl oxazaborolidine 79b (Fig. 6-6) was easier to prepare and to handle. The enantioselectivity of the 79b-catalyzed reaction is comparable with that of the reaction mediated by 79a (Scheme 6-36).81 The -naphthyl derivative 82 also affords high enantioselectivity.78 As a general procedure, oxazaborolidine catalysts may be used in 5-10 mol%... 

Scheme 19. Corey s utilization of B-methyl CBS catalyst in the asymmetric reduction of a ketone en route to wodeshiol (1999), and Nicolaou s application of the Corey technology to a total synthesis of rapa-mycin (1993).

In 2006, Tan and co-workers reported the first asymmetric guanidine catalyzed Diels-Alder addition of anthrone to maleimides (Scheme 75) [130], The authors observed very high yields and enantioselectivities using a derivative of Corey s C2-symmetric bicyclic gnanidine catalyst. The addition of anthrones to maleimide also worked well for snbstitnted anthrones. Interestingly, the anthors observed the oxidized prodnct when the anthrone was substituted at the meto-positions (Scheme 76). 

Since Corey s group first reported 0(9)-allyl-N-(9-anthracenylmethyl) cinchonidi-nium bromide as a new phase-transfer catalyst [13], its application to various asymmetric reactions has been investigated. In particular, this catalyst represents a powerful tool in various conjugated additions using chalcone derivatives (Scheme 3.2). For example, nitromethane [14], acetophenone [15], and silyl eno-lates [16] produce the corresponding adducts in high enantioselectivity. When p-alkyl substrates are used under PTC conditions, asymmetric dimerization triggered by the abstraction of a y-proton proceeds smoothly, with up to 98% ee [17]. 

In a direct comparison of the reduction of acetophenone to highly enantio-en-riched (R)-phenylethanol (94% e.e.) by heterogenized (S)-diphenyloxazaborolidine (Corey-Itsuno catalyst) or to enantiomerically pure (S)-phenylethanol (> 99% e.e.) by Candida parapsilosis carbonyl reductase (CPCR), the superior solubility of acetophenone in THF (0.25 m) versus water (0.04 m) leads to a vastly superior space-time yield of 290 g (L d) 1 in THF with the Corey-Itsuno catalyst in comparison with 27 g (L d) 1 in water with CPCR (Rissom, 1999). Conversely, the turnover frequencies (tofs) of 0.3 min-1 (Corey-Itsuno catalyst) versus 2.3 x 104 min-1 (CPCR) portend the difference in total turnover number (TTNs) of 2.4 x 108 versus 560. 

Stoichiometric sulfur ylide epoxidation was first reported by A.W. Johnson [23] in 1958, and subsequently the method of Corey and Chaykovsky has found widespread use [24-26]. The first enantioselective epoxidations using stoichiometric amounts of ylide were reported in 1968 [27, 28]. In another early example, Hiyama et al. used a chiral phase-transfer catalyst (20 mol%) and stoichiometric amounts of Corey s ylide to effect asymmetric epoxidation of benzaldehyde in moderate to good enantiomeric excess (ee) of 67 to 89% [29]. Here, we will focus on epoxidations using catalytic amounts of ylide [30-32]. A general mechanism for sulfur ylide epoxidation is shown in Scheme 10.2, whereby an attack by the ylide on a carbonyl group yields a betaine intermediate which collapses to yield... 

The pioneering studies by Itsuno [1] and Corey [2] on the development of the asymmetric hydroboration of ketones using oxazaborolidines have made it possible to easily obtain chiral secondary alcohols with excellent optical purity [3]. Scheme 1 shows examples of Corey s (Corey-Bakshi-Shibata) CBS reduction. When oxazaborolidines 1 were used as catalysts (usually 0.01-0.1 equiv), a wide variety of ketones were reduced by borane reagents with consistently high enan-tioselectivity [2]. The sense of enantioselection was predictable. Many important biologically active compounds and functional materials have been synthesized using this versatile reaction [2-4]. 

Boron compounds formed the next generation of ehiral catalysts (Scheme 4). Masamune [8] was able to use a thioketeneacetal (20) and the ehiral boron-based Lewis acid 21 in the stereoselective formation of the anti aldol product 22. Unfortunately, the demand for 20 mol % catalyst was still very high. Corey s group 9] reported the successful use of the tryptophane-derived catalyst 25 in an... 

One difference between Corey s proposed catalyst and that of Sharpless which is worthy of note is the bidentate binding of the hydroperoxide to the titanium. In the Sharpless structure 4 the oxygen of the terf-hutoxy group is bound in an axial position and the peroxygen is bound equatorially (as predicted by frontier orbital analysis37) while in the Corey structure 6 both oxygens of the /c-rf-butylperoxy fragment are bound in equatorial positions. 

Attempts were then made to perform asymmetric catalytic reactions using chiral Lewis acid catalysts [59]. Reaction of the nitrone 73 and the oxazolidinone 76 with 10 mol % of the bis(oxazoline) 12-Mg(II) catalyst, prepared by Corey s method [13], in the presence of 4-A molecular sieves afforded the cycloadduct 77 in high yield (>95 %) and high (> 95 %) endo selectivity and 82 % ee (Sch. 33). The presence of activated powdered 4-A molecular sieves was essential to the endo and enantioselec-tivity of the reaction in their absence they were 65 % and < 2 %, respectively. The reaction proceeded via an intermediate XXIX, proposed by Corey [13], in which the bis(oxazoline) ligand 12 and the oxazolidinone 76 are both bidentately coordinated to the magnesium and addition to the re face is favored because the si face of the bound oxazolidinone is masked by one of the phenyl substituents on the oxazoline rings. 

The asymmetric total synthesis of prostaglandin Ei utilizing a two-component coupling process was achieved in the laboratory of B.W. Spur. The hydroxylated side-chain of the target was prepared via the catalytic asymmetric reduction of a y-iodo vinyl ketone with catecholborane in the presence of Corey s CBS catalyst. The reduction proceeded in 95% yield and >96% ee. The best results were obtained at low temperature and with the use of the B-n-butyl catalyst. The 6-methyl catalyst afforded lower enantiomeric excess and at higher temperatures the ee dropped due to competing non-catalyzed reduction. 

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