Diastereofacial selectivity reaction with aldimines

Interestingly, the diastereofacial selectivity can be reversed in the Strecker reaction of aldimines derived from galactosylamine 1 by simply changing the solvent. When the reaction of trimethylsilyl cyanide with the Schiff bases 2 catalyzed by zinc chloride, is carried out in chloroform instead of 2-propanol, there is a preferred formation of the (.S)-amino nitrile diastereomers63. 

Asymmetric reactions have also been developed. The reactions of allyltitaniums with chiral aldimines derived from optically active 1-phenylethylamine afford optically active homoallylic amines with excellent diastereofacial selectivities. Thus, the Cram syn addition products are obtained highly predominantly when using crotyltitanium reagent 33, as exemplified in Scheme 13.30 [61]. 

Some examples of combined syn-anti and diastereofacial selectivity employing /V-n-propyl- and N-isopropyl-aldimines, derived from a-phenylpropionaldehyde, and crotyl-9-BBN, -magnesium and -zirconium reagents have been reported by Yamamoto et al. Cram selectivity, which is observed in the analogous reactions of these chiral imines with allyl organometallics (see Section 4.3.2.1.2i), is preserved as ratios of Cram anti-Cram products are consistently about 8 1. Anti selectivity is also observed but the ratios do not exceed 7 3. The weak anti selectivity parallels that observed in reactions of crotyl-9-BBN with branched a-alkylaldimines. Since syn-anti selectivity is influenced more by the a-substituent than by the A-substituent of the aldimine, more synthetically useful levels of combined syn-anti and diastereofacial selectivity might be expected in other series of a-substituted aldimines. 

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