Diarylprolinols, catalysis

The [3+2] cycloaddition has also been shown to be effective in the reaction of azomethine imines 32 with a,P-unsaturated aldehydes by Chen and co-workers [70], A survey of seven catalysts revealed some interesting trends, with the diarylprolinol derivative 31 giving the highest yields and selectivities (40-95% yield endo. exo 1 4.3-1 49 77-96% ee for exo) with short reaction times (5-24 h) and low catalyst loading (10 mol%) (Scheme 11). The reaction was particularly sensitive to the amount of water present in the reaction medium and the choice of co-acid. This phenomenon is a reoccurring theme in many of the publications in the area of iminium ion catalysis and, as yet, no general explanation has been proposed to account for these observations. 

However, formation of this bond through the conjugate addition of a soft sulfur nucleophile to a,P-unsaturated aldehydes is efficiently catalysed using iminium ion catalysis [116], Using diarylprolinol silyl ether 55 the addition of a series of sulfur based nucleophiles to a variety of a,P-unsaturated aldehydes was shown to be effective (73-87% yield 89-97% ee). The products were isolated as their p-hydroxy sulfide derivatives 73 after in situ reduction of the products (Scheme 33). 

Simultaneous publication of the iminium ion catalysed hydrophosphination of a,p-unsaturated aldehydes by Melchiorre and Cordova showed diarylprolinol silyl ether 55 was effective in the conjugate addition of diphenylphosphine 74 [117, 118], Direct transformation of the products allowed for one-pot methods for the preparation of P-phosphine alcohols 75 (72-85% yield 90-98% ee), P-phosphine oxide acids 76 (65% yield 92% ee) and 3-amino phosphines 77 (71% yield 87% ee) (Scheme 34). These reports represent the first examples of the addition of P-centred nucleophiles and the resulting highly functionalised products may well have further use in asymmetric catalysis. 

It is worth noting that use of unprotected diarylprolinol 33 provides an effective platform for the epoxidation of a,P-unsaturated ketones [148, 149]. Within these reports it was proposed that an alternative mode of activation of the substrate could be taking place. Hydrogen bonding catalysis, rather than iminium ion formation, could explain the results and would be consistent with the non-polar reaction medium adopted within these reactions. 

The asymmetric vinylogous Michael addition of 4-dicyanovinylthiochromans 309 to ot,(3-unsaturated aldehydes proceeds under catalysis by chiral a,a-diarylprolinol salts and exhibits excellent regio-, chemo-, diastereo-, and enantio- selectivities (Equation 46) <2006CC1563>. 

This overview about developments in the field of proline-catalysis unfortunately cannot take into full account the vast field of proline-derived catalysts, such as diarylprolinols, 4-silo)yprolines or proline-silyl-ether, to name only a few. These are covered in subsequent chapters of this volume. Furthermore, other great improvements have been made by using immobilised proline catalysts, such as PEG-supported proline or polyelectrolyte-bound pro-line. Going one step further, supported proline catalysts are then applicable in the striving field of continuous-flow reactions. Recent examples include aldol, a-amination reactions and Michael reactions under such conditions. ... 

Diarylprolinol silyl ether catalyst was able to promote enantioselective allqrlations of a,p-unsaturated aldehydes with stabilised carbcations as electrophiles. Dienamine intermediates were trapped by the electrophile in two positions. The y-disubstituted aldehydes were not good substrates for y-substitution. However, linear unbranched and p-substituted a,p-unsaturated aldehydes preferred y-substitution. ot-Substituted aldehydes were unreactive under secondary amine catalysis (Scheme 8.45). 

In 2010, Chen and co-workers [134] developed the first organocatalytic asymmetric conjugate addition of a, 3-unsaturated aldehydes via iminium catalysis. In the presence of diarylprolinol silylether 7 and o-fluorobenzoic acid (OFBA), the reaction proceeded well to afford the highly valued adducts with excellent enantioselectivities and with up to outstanding diastereoselectivities (Scheme 5.67). To emphasize the synthetic utility of the reaction, a number of natural-product-like or drug-like molecules with versatile skeletons have been efficiently constructed from the corresponding Michael adducts. 

The use of enamine catalysis in the enantioselective a-functionalization of carbonyl compounds has been reviewed, including aldol, Mannich, and alkylation processes," and a short review has examined enantioselective a-alkylation of aldehydes Benzodithiolylium tetrafluoroborate (133) is a water-stable salt and can be added enantioselectively to aldehydes at the a-position in the presence of simple chiral organocatalysts, giving the corresponding alcohol. The sulfurs can be readily cleaved with H2/Raney Ni, rendering the process a formal tf-methylation of aldehydes." a ,/3-Unsaturated aldehydes undergo enantioselective a- and y-alkylation via dien-amine activation, using a diarylprolinol TMS ether as catalyst." ... 

Propargylic esters undergo enantioselective alkylation with aldehydes (R-CHjCHO) to give propargylic alkylated products as a mixture of diastereomers (136), using cooperative catalysis by a copper(I)-BINAP complex and a diarylprolinol TMS ether." ... 

In 2009, a wide range of optically active chromans and tetrahydroquinolines were synthesised by Xiao et al. on the basis of the first enantioselective organo-catalytic intramolecular hydroarylations of phenol- and aniline-derived enals. Good yields combined with good to high enantioselectivities of up to 96% ee were obtained for the Michael adducts generated by catalysis with a diarylprolinol silyl ether (Scheme 1.83). 

The ability of the diarylprolinol catalysts to participate in both enamine- and iminium-ion achvations makes them ideal for the sequential addition of nucleophiles and electrophiles through cascade catalysis (Scheme 2.8). Conjugate addition of a nucleophile to the iminium ion forms a transient enamine intermediate 3, which can effectively react with an electrophile in the a-position, forming an a,P-disubstituted adduct. This process commonly proceeds to afford the products in good yields and with high enantio- and diastereoselectivities. If the nucleophile and electrophile are part of the same molecule, cyclic products are obtained. The cascade concept has been widely explored and some illustrative examples are given below [13, 17]. 

As for the base-promoted thioetheriiication, Shen and Wang reported in 2005 that highly electrophilic alkenes such as fluorinated vinylstannanes 172 could be converted to fluorinated vinyl sulfides 173 with ( )-selectivity via a nucleophilic addition of thiols to alkenes and defluorination 174 followed by destannylation (Scheme 46.22). In 2008, Cordova developed an organocatalytic enantioselec-tive aminosulfenylation of a,(3-unsaturated aldehydes 175 using A -(benzylthio)succinimides 176 in the presence of a TMS-protected chiral diarylprolinol. ° The reaction proceeded with low diastereoselectivities but with excellent enantioselectivities. The reason for the low diastereoselec-tivity might lie in the rapid epimerzation of Ca-H bond under the enamine catalysis 178. 

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