Double bonds asymmetric transfer hydrogenation

In this chapter and in Chapters 10-12, we will review and validate some methods for asymmetric (transfer) hydrogenation of carbon-oxygen and carbon-carbon double bonds catalysed by non-metallic systems, homogeneous transition metal catalysts and biocatalysts. Reduction of carbon-nitrogen double bond systems will be reported in another volume of this series. 

BINAP has been extensively used for the asymmetric hydrogenation, transfer hydrogenation and isomerisation of double bonds using both ruthenium and rhodium complexes. 

Combination of the Hantzsch ester mediated transfer hydrogenation together with chlorine (116) or fluorine (117) electrophiles allows for the formal addition of HCl or HF aaoss a double bond in a catalytic asymmetric manner (Scheme 48) [178], Within this paper the reactions were further refined by the use of two cycle-specific secondary amines which effectively operated independently within the same reaction mixture. Impressively, this allowed access to either diastereoisomer of the product depending upon the absolute configuration of the catalyst used in the second step of the sequence. 

As discussed in Section 10.1, asymmetric epoxidation of C=C double bonds usually requires electrophilic oxygen donors such as dioxiranes or oxaziridinium ions. The oxidants typically used for enone epoxidation are, on the other hand, nucleophilic in nature. A prominent example is the well-known Weitz-Scheffer epoxidation using alkaline hydrogen peroxide or hydroperoxides in the presence of base. Asymmetric epoxidation of enones and enoates has been achieved both with metal-containing catalysts and with metal-free systems [52-55]. In the (metal-based) approaches of Enders [56, 57], Jackson [58, 59], and Shibasaki [60, 61] enantiomeric excesses > 90% have been achieved for a variety of substrate classes. In this field, however, the same is also true for metal-free catalysts. Chiral dioxiranes will be discussed in Section 10.2.1, peptide catalysts in Section 10.2.2, and phase-transfer catalysts in Section 10.2.3. 

Fig. 10.24. Asymmetric carbonyl group reduction with Alpine-Borane (preparation Figure 3.27 for the "parachute-like" notation of the 9-BBN part of this reagent see Figure 3.21). The hydrogen atom that is in the cis-position to the boron atom (which applies to both ft- and /T-H) and that after removal of the reducing agent leaves behind a tri- instead of a disubstituted C=C double bond (which applies to ft-, but not / -H) is transferred as a hydride equivalent. In regard to the reduction product depicted in the top row, the designation S of the configuration relates to the aryl-substituted and R to the Rtert-substituted propargylic alcohol.

In addition to transfer hydrogenation reactions, arene ruthenium complexes also display excellent activity in the catalytic hydrogenation of olefins and alkynes including asymmetric reduction [40]. Remarkably, this process occurs under milder conditions, than required for catalysis with the dissociation of arene-metal bond. Lately, arene iridium complexes have also been found to be effective hydrogenation catalysts [41 ]. It is noteworthy that iridium can also promotes addition to the carbon-nitrogen double bond. 

Retrosynthesis (i) in Scheme 10.9 identifies stereoselective formation of a carbon-hydrogen bond as a route to the chiral methyl branch. This could he accomplished, for instance, by asymmetric protonation of a prochiral eno-late, by asymmetric hydride transfer to a prochiral enoate (Scheme 10.10) [13], by transfer of a hydrogen atom to a prochiral carbon-centered radical, or by hydrogenation of a prochiral carbon-carbon double bond. The latter might sueeeed with the aid of chiral catalysts [14, 15]. Otherwise, one has to resort to the attachment of ehiral auxiliaries [16, 17]. 

On the basis of the fact that (R)-BMPP coordinated to the metal center can induce asymmetric addition of methyldichlorosilane across the carbon-carbon double bond of 2-substituted propenes to afford an enantiomeric excess of (R)-2-substituted propylmethyldichlorosilanes, the following processes should be involved in these reactions (a) insertion of the metal center into the silicon-hydrogen bond (oxidative addition of the hydrosilane) (b) addition of the resulting hydridometal moiety to the coordinated olefin preferentially from its re face (in a cis manner) to convert the olefin into an alkyl-metal species and (c) transfer of the silyl group from the metal center to the alkyl carbon to form the product. Since process (b) most likely involves diastereomeric transition states or intermediates, the overall asymmetric bias onto the R configuration at the chiral carbon would have already been determined prior to process (c). A schematic view of such a process is given in Scheme 1. 

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