Dialkylzinc compounds enantioselective reactions

The complex of Me2Zn with (5, 5 )-ebpe, 107, has been applied successfully as catalyst in the enantioselective reduction of ketones by polymethylhydrosiloxane and combines excellent product yields with high ee values . Its structure comprises the iV,iV-chelate coordination of the ebpe ligand to the MeiZn unit (Figure 51). It is remarkable that in this case the two secondary amine functionalities are coordinated to zinc and leave the Zn—C bonds unaffected. Indeed, usually secondary amines undergo a fast deprotonation reaction with dialkylzinc compounds. 

In another study Feringa et al. [20] reported a catalytic enantioselective three-component tandem conjugate addition-aldol reaction of dialkyl zincs. Here, zinc enolates were generated in situ via catalytic enantioselective Michael addition of dialkylzinc compounds to cydohexenone in the presence of a chiral Cu catalyst. Their diastereoselective reaction with an aldehyde then gave trans-2,3-disubstituted cyclohexanones in up to 92% yields and up to >99% ees (Scheme 9.11). 

Even the very efficient enantioselective catalysts used in organozinc addition reactions to carbonyl compounds failed to catalyze the corresponding addition reactions to nonactivated imines such as N-silyl-, N-phenyl-, or A-benzyl-imines. However, enantioselective additions of dialkylzinc compounds to more activated imines, like A7-acyl- or N-phosphinoyl-imines, in the presence of catalytic or stoichiometric amounts of chiral see Chiral) aminoalcohols, have been recently reported. For example, in presence of 1 equiv of (N,N-dibutylnorephedrine) (DBNE) diethylzinc reacts with masked N-acyl imines like A7-(amidobenzyl)benzotriazoles, to give chiral N- -phenylpropyl) amides with up to 76% e.e. (equation 68). 

BINOL and related compounds have proved to be effective catalysts for a variety of reactions. Zhang et al.106a and Mori and Nakai106b used an (R)-BINOL-Ti(OPr )4 catalyst system in the enantioselective diethylzinc alkylation of aldehydes, and the corresponding secondary alcohols were obtained with high enantioselectivity. This catalytic system works well even for aliphatic aldehydes. Dialkylzinc addition promoted by TifOPr1 in the presence of (R)- or (A)-BINOL can give excellent results under very mild conditions. Both conversion of the aldehyde and the ee of the product can be over 90% in most cases. The results are summarized in Table 2-14. 

Chirality plays a central role in the chemical, biological, pharmaceutical and material sciences. Owing to the recent advances in asymmetric catalysis, catalytic enantioselective synthesis has become one of the most efficient methods for the preparation of enantiomer-ically enriched compounds. An increased amount of enantiomerically enriched product can be obtained from an asymmetric reaction using a small amount of an asymmetric catalyst. Studies on the enantioselective addition of dialkylzincs to aldehydes have attracted increasing interest. After the chiral amino alcohols were developed, highly enantioselective and reproducible —C bond forming reactions have become possible. 

As for the reduction of the ketones, the amphoteric catalysts featuring acidic-basic sites have been found to be very effective for the enantioselective catalysis of C-C bond formation. Thus, Soai et al. were the first to report the enantioselective addition of dialkylzincs to aldehydes using enantiomerically pure phosphin-amides and analogues as chiral catalysts in the presence of titanium tetraiso-propoxide. Numerous chiral organophosphorus compounds have been prepared and applied in a test reaction between benzaldehyde and diethylzinc [48, 49]. An important difference in terms of enantioselectivity was observed between the behavior of P=S (47-48) and P=0 (49) groups. Thus, the enan-... 

Katritzky and Harris reported in 1992 the use of diethylzinc for the chiral amino alcohol-mediated enantioselective addition to the C=N bond in these compounds (Scheme 12) [34]. These substrates act as masked activated N-acylimines. Of the large variety of Hgands available for the catalytic asymmetric reactions of dialkylzinc reagents,the sterically constrained P-dialkylamino alcohol, (-)-N,N-dibutylnorephedrine (DBNE) 18, prepared by alkylation of commercially available norephedrine, was selected for this study. Some preliminary experiments conducted with the use of -(aminobenzyl)benzotriazoles gave the ethylated product, but with no enantioselectivity. Diethylzinc (Et2Zn) was found to react even in the absence of a chiral promoter. The behavior of the less reactive N-(amidobenzyl)benzotriazoles 19a-g was then investigated. 

The enantioselective addition of dialkylzinc reagents to alkynyl aldehydes catalysed by ( )-(+)-(l-methylpyrrolidin-2-yl)diphenylmethanol has been described. Thus the laevorotatory alcohol 102 was obtained in 78% enantiomeric excess (equation 15). The action of diethylaluminium chloride on alkynyllithium compounds yields ether-free diethylalkynylalanes 103, which undergo conjugate addition to nitroalkenes (equation 16). Conjugate addition also occurs in the reactions of (l-alkynyl)diisopropoxyboranes 104 (R = Bu, t-Bu or Ph) with a,j5-unsaturated ketones 105 (R = H, Me or Ph R = Me, hexyl or Ph) (equation 17). ... 

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