Diastereoselectivity in Organic Reactions

Abstract This chapter deals with the facial selectivity of nucleophilic additions to carbonyl compounds. This is explained using models such as the Cram s model, Anh-Felkin modification of Cram s model, Houk s transition structure model, Houk s electrostatic model, Cieplak s a — cr model, and cation coordination model. The intricacies, variations, and predicted selectivities of these models are elaborated with examples. It has been argued that the Cieplak s cr cr model is applicable to only those reactions that proceed through product-like transition structures. Using the cation coordination model, the facial selectivities of a number of substrates, including the better anrf-selectivity of endo,endo-2,3-die hyl-l -norbomanone in comparison to that of en i0,en i0-2,3-dimethyl-7-norbomanone, have been convincingly explained. 

Keywords Cram s model Anh-Felkin modification Houk s transition structure model Houk s electrostatic model Cieplak s a — a model Cation coordination model (a — n model) Carbonyl pyramidalization a — interaction Reactant-like and product-like transition structures 

The addition of a nucleophile to a carbonyl compound with a chiral a carbon generates a mixture of two diastereoisomers. The ratio of these diastereoisomers depends on the relative bulks of the (non-coordinating) substituents on the chiral center, the effective bulkiness of the nucleophile as well and the reaction conditions. By effective bulkiness, we mean the bulk of the solvated nucleophile, if the same is imminent. The reaction is schematically represented in Eq. 1. 

Steric and Stereoelectronic Effects in Organic Chemistry, 

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A kinetic study of the Ph2BOH-catalysed reactions of several aldehydes with 2 revealed that the rate of the disappearance of 2 followed first-order kinetics and was independent from the reactivity of the aldehydes used. Taking into account this result, we have proposed the reaction mechanism in which a silyl enol ether is transformed to the corresponding diphenylboryl enolate before the aldol addition step takes place (Scheme 13.1). The high diastereoselectivity is consistent with the mechanism, in which the aldol step proceeds via a chair-like six-membered transition state. The opposite diastereoselectivity in the reaction with the geometrical isomers of the thioketene silyl acetal shown in Table 13.3 also supports the mechanism via the boron enolate, because this trend was also observed in the classical boron enolate-mediated reactions in dry organic solvents. Although we have not yet observed the boron enolates directly under the reaction conditions, this mechanism can explain all of the experimental data obtained and is considered as the most reasonable one. As far as we know, this is the first example of... 

This area of research has only recently attracted the attention of synthetic organic chemists, but there has been a flurry of impressive activity in the area. Simple (i. e., unstabilized) carbenes suffer from many of the problems of nitrenes (vide infra) and most reported synthetically useful procedures use carbenoids the majority of recent reports have focussed upon reactions between a-diazoesters and imines in the presence of a range of catalysts. In one of the earliest reports of enantioselective carbene-imine reactions, for instance, Jacobsen and Finney reported that ethyl diazoacetate reacts with N-arylaldimines in the presence of cop-per(i) hexafluorophosphate with mediocre stereoselectivity to give N-arylaziridine carboxylates. Though the diastereoselectivities of the reaction were often acceptable (usually >10 1, in favor of the cis isomers) the observed enantioselectivity was low (no more than 44% ee Scheme 4.27) [33],... 

It is believed that clay minerals promote organic reactions via an acid catalysis [2a]. They are often activated by doping with transition metals to enrich the number of Lewis-acid sites by cationic exchange [4]. Alternative radical pathways have also been proposed [5] in agreement with the observation that clay-catalyzed Diels-Alder reactions are accelerated in the presence of radical sources [6], Montmorillonite K-10 doped with Fe(III) efficiently catalyzes the Diels-Alder reaction of cyclopentadiene (1) with methyl vinyl ketone at room temperature [7] (Table 4.1). In water the diastereoselectivity is higher than in organic media in the absence of clay the cycloaddition proceeds at a much slower rate. 

The aqueous medium also has beneficial effects on the diastereoselectivity of the Diels-Alder reactions. The endo addition that occurs in the classical cycloadditions of cyclopentadiene with methyl vinyl ketone and methyl acrylate is more favored when the reaction is carried out in aqueous medium than when it is performed in organic solvents (Table 6.4) [2b, c]. 

The synthesis of chaparrinone and other quassinoids (naturally occurring substances with antileukemic activity) is another striking example [16a-c]. The key step of synthesis was the Diels-Alder reaction between the a,/l-unsaturated ketoaldehyde 1 (Scheme 6.1) with ethyl 4-methyl-3,5-hexadienoate 2 (R = Et). In benzene, the exo adduct is prevalent but it does not have the desired stereochemistry at C-14. In water, the reaction rate nearly doubles and both the reaction yield and the endo adduct increase considerably. By using the diene acid 2 (R = H) the reaction in water is 10 times faster than in organic solvent and the diastereoselectivity and the yield are satisfactory. The best result was obtained with diene sodium carboxylate 2 (R = Na) when the reaction is conducted 2m in diene the reaction is complete in 5h and the endo adduct is 75% of the diaster-eoisomeric reaction mixture. 

Lubineau and coworkers [18] have shown that glyoxal 8 (Ri = R2 = H), glyoxylic acid 8 (Ri = H, R2 = OH), pyruvic acid 8 (Ri = Me, R2 = OH) and pyruvaldehyde 8 (Ri = H, R2 = Me) give Diels-Alder reactions in water with poor reactive dienes, although these dienophiles are, for the most part, in the hydrated form. Scheme 6.6 illustrates the reactions with (E)-1,3-dimethyl-butadiene. The reaction yields are generally good and the ratio of adducts 9 and 10 reflects the thermodynamic control of the reaction. In organic solvent, the reaction is kinetically controlled and the diastereoselectivity is reversed. 

The Diels-Alder reaction can be greatly enhanced by high pressure (Chapter 5) but the effect of pressure is generally weaker in aqueous medium than in organic solvent. Results of high pressure-mediated Diels-Alder reactions of furans and acrylates in water and dichloromethane are reported in Table 6.6 [32]. In aqueous medium the cycloadditions occur with lower yields and less diastereoselectivity than in dichloromethane and, in some cases, addition-substitution reactions were observed. 

The allylation of carbonyl compounds in aqueous media with SnCl2 can also employ allylic alcohols (Eq. 8.39)84 or carboxylates85 in the presence of a palladium catalyst. The diastereoselectivity of the reactions with substituted crotyl alcohols was solvent dependent. Improved diastereoselectivity was obtained when a mixture of water and THF or DMSO was used, instead of the organic solvent alone. 

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