Dihydrofurans, chiral

The ene reaction of fuUerene (C o) with 3-methylene-2,3-dihydrofuran gives an easily isolated addition product in good yield <96JOC2559>. There is a continuous need for chiral acrylate esters for asymmetric Diels-Alder reactions with high diastereoselectivity. Lewis acid promoted Diels-Alder reactions of acrylate esters from monobenzylated isosorbide 28 (or isomannide) and cyclopentadiene provided exclusively e db-adducts with good yields and high diastereoselectivity <96TL7023>. 

Subsequently, these catalysts were evaluated in the enantioselective desymmetri-sation of achiral trienes, and three distinct trends in catalyst selectivity were found. Firstly, catalysts 56a-b with two phenyl moieties on the backbone of the A -heterocycle exhibited higher enantioselectivity than those with a fused cyclohexyl group as the backbone 55a-b. Secondly, mono-ort/io-substituted aryl side chains induced greater enantioselectivity than symmetrical mesityl wing tips. Thirdly, changing the halide ligands from Cl to I" increased the enantioselectivity. As a result, catalyst 56b turned out to be the most effective. For example, 56b in the presence of Nal was able to promote the desymmetrisation of 57 to give chiral dihydrofuran 58 in up to 82% conversion and 90% ee (Scheme 3.3). 

In 2004, Molander et al. developed another type of chiral sulfur-containing ligands for the intermolecular Heck reaction. Thus, their corresponding novel cyclopropane-based phosphorus/sulfur palladium complexes proved to be active as catalysts for the reaction between phenyltriflate and dihydrofuran, providing at high temperature a mixture of the expected product and its iso-merised analogue (Scheme 7.7). The major isomer C was obtained with a maximum enantioseleetivity of 63% ee. 

Chiral 2,5-dihydrofuran can be prepared through the HC1 gas promoted cyclization of the corresponding optically active allenic hydroxy-ester 83 with almost complete axis chirality (87% ee) to center chirality (85% ee) transfer <00TL9613>. 

The 1,3-dipolar cycloaddition of nitrile oxides and 2-methylfuran provides suitable precursors for a-amino acids such as L-furanomycin 448 that contains a dihydrofuran ring (495). By using a chiral nitrile oxide derived from mannitol bis(acetonide), the enantiomerically pure furoisoxazoline 449 has been obtained. Hydroboration-oxidation of the latter leads to the hydroxy-substituted annulated THF derivative 450, which is converted via dihydrofuran 451 to furanomycin 448 in enantiomerically pure form (Scheme 1.55). 

As also shown in Scheme 4, when rac-20, prepared from simple alkylation of the corresponding allylic alcohol with allylbromide, is treated with 2 mol% la and the reaction mixture is then treated with 10 mol% (R)-3b and five equivalents of EtMgCI at 70°C, (S)-21 and (3S,4k)-22 are obtained in >99% ee and 41% and 47% yield after silica gel chromatography,respectively (chiral GLC analysis) [5b]. Thus, from simple starting materials and in a single vessel, compounds of excellent optical purity can be obtained efficiently (88% yield). As before, the racemic dihydrofuran intermediate need not be isolated. 

The Diels-Alder reaction outlined above is a typical example of the utilization of axially chiral allenes, accessible through 1,6-addition or other methods, to generate selectively new stereogenic centers. This transfer of chirality is also possible via in-termolecular Diels-Alder reactions of vinylallenes [57], aldol reactions of allenyl eno-lates [19f] and Ireland-Claisen rearrangements of silyl allenylketene acetals [58]. Furthermore, it has been utilized recently in the diastereoselective oxidation of titanium allenyl enolates (formed by deprotonation of /3-allenecarboxylates of type 65 and transmetalation with titanocene dichloride) with dimethyl dioxirane (DMDO) [25, 59] and in subsequent acid- or gold-catalyzed cycloisomerization reactions of a-hydroxyallenes into 2,5-dihydrofurans (cf. Chapter 15) [25, 59, 60],... 

Allenyltrimethylsilanes add to ethyl glyoxalate in the presence of a chiral pybox scandium triflate catalyst to afford highly enantioenriched homopropargylic alcohols or dihydrofurans, depending on the nature of the silyl substituent (Tables 9.39 and 9.40) [62]. The trimethylsilyl-substituted silanes give rise to the alcohol products whereas the bulkier t-butyldiphenylsilyl (DPS)-substituted silanes yield only the [3 + 2] cycloadducts. A bidentate complex of the glyoxalate with the scandium metal center in which the aldehyde carbonyl adopts an axial orientation accounts for the observed facial preference ofboth additions. 

The allene moiety can also interact electrophilically with NBS or PhSeCl followed by intramolecular attack of the hydroxyl group leading to 3-heteroatom-substituted 2,5-dihydrofurans 362. The chirality in the starting compounds can be efficiently transferred to the 2,5-positions of 2,5-dihydrofurans [167]. 

In a synthesis of furanomycin, this reaction was a stereospecific key step for the construction of the dihydrofuran ring 77 from the chiral non-racemic precursor 76 (Scheme 15.18) [41]. 

The reaction of vinylcarbenoids with vinyl ethers can lead to other types of [3 + 2] cycloadditions. The symmetric synthesis of 2,3-dihydrofurans is readily achieved by reaction of rhodium-stabilized vinylcarbenoids with vinyl ethers (Scheme 14.17) [107]. In this case, (J )-pantolactone is used as a chiral auxihary. The initial cyclopropanation proceeds with high asymmetric induction upon deprotection of the silyl enol ether 146, ring expansion occurs to furnish the dihydrofuran 147, with no significant epi-merization during the ring-expansion process. 

When the chiral catalyst tetrakis(binaphtholphosphate)dirhodium was used, moderate enantiomeric excess (50%) was obtained in cycloaddition reactions with furans and dihydrofurans (359). This method has been applied to the synthesis of several natural products that contain fused furan rings, e.g., the human platelet... 

Regio- and enantioselective Heck reactions of 2 3-dihydrofuran with aryl and alkenyl triflates in the presence of the chiral ligand (R)-BITIANP provides 2-substituted 23-dihydro-furans with complete regioselectivity, high enantioselectivity (86-96% ee) and good yields (76-93%) <99CC1811>. A catalytic oxyselenylation-deselenylation reaction of alkenes offers a stereoselective one-pot conversion of alkenes into 2 -dihydrofurans <99EF0797>. 

As mentioned previously, the partially reduced forms of five membered heteroaromatic systems might act as olefins in insertion reactions. This behaviour is characteristic particularly of dihydrofuranes. The olefin insertion and the following / hydride elimination should in principle lead to a trisubstituted olefin, which is rarely observed, however. Typical products of this reaction are 2-aryl-2,3-dihydrofuranes. A characteristic example of such a reaction is presented in 6.54. The coupling of 4-iodoanisole and dihydrofurane led to the formation of the chiral 2-anisyl-2,3-dihydrofurane in excellent yield.83 The shift of the double bond, which leads to the creation of a new centre of chirality in the molecule, opens up the way for enantioselective transformations. Both intermolecular and intramolecular variants of the asymmetric Heck reaction have been studied extensively.84... 

Preparation of addition polymers having the oxolene (dihydrofuran) functionality can be envisioned to occur in two possible ways (Scheme 13). Both, in fact, have been observed (77MI11102). Whereas furan (53) or its derivatives do not homopolymerize under free radical conditions, 1 1 alternating copolymers possessing the 1,4-structure are produced with maleic anhydride (50). Intermediate formation of a CT complex between monomers (50) and (53) is believed to be necessary before polymerization can occur. On the other hand, cationic polymerization is quite facile. The outcome is straightforward with benzo[f>]furan derivatives, producing 1,2-polymers. Optically active poly(benzofurans) are formed when the cationic polymerizations are conducted in the presence of a chiral anion. 

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