Electron deficient enantioselective addition

Catalytic enantioselective nucleophilic addition of nitroalkanes to electron-deficient alke-nes is a challenging area in organic synthesis. The use of cinchona alkaloids as chiral catalysts has been studied for many years. Asymmetric induction in the Michael addition of nitroalkanes to enones has been carried out with various chiral bases. Wynberg and coworkers have used various alkaloids and their derivatives, but the enantiomeric excess (ee) is generally low (up to 20%).199 The Michael addition of methyl vinyl ketone to 2-nitrocycloalkanes catalyzed by the cinchona alkaloid cinchonine affords adducts in high yields in up to 60% ee (Eq. 4.137).200... 

The first example of asymmetric rhodium-catalyzed 1,4-addition of organoboron reagents to enones was described in 1998 by Hayashi and Miyaura. Significant progress has been made in the past few years. This asymmetric addition reaction can be carried out in aqueous solvent for a broad range of substrates, such as a,/ -unsaturated ketones, esters, amides, phosphonates, nitroalkenes. The enantioselectivity is always very high (in most cases over 90% ee). This asymmetric transformation provides the best method for the enantioselective introduction of aryl and alkenyl groups to the / -position of these electron-deficient olefins. 

Zhang et al. developed the enantioselective chiral phosphine-catalyzed addition of 2,3-allenoates with carbon-centered nucleophiles and electron-deficient olefins leading to efficient enantioselective C-C bond formation [248, 249]. 

Compound 388 is an acylating agent for electron-deficient alkenes, in a Michael addition process. It is formed by treating molybdenum hexacarbonyl with an organolithium compound, followed by quenching the intermediate 387 with boron trifluoride (equation 104). The structure of 388 (R = Ph) can be elucidated by NMR spectroscopy. Other examples of enantioselective and diastereoselective Michael-type additions involving lithium-containing intermediates in the presence of chiral additives can be found elsewhere in the literature . 

Rhodium-catalyzed asymmetric conjugate addition has enjoyed uninterrupted prosperity since the first report by Hayashi and Miyaura [6]. Its high enantioselectivity and wide applicability are truly remarkable. However, some problems still remain, since the carbon atoms that can be successfully introduced by this rhodium-catalyzed reaction have been limited to sp carbons and the substrates employed have been limited mostly to the electron-deficient olefins free from sterically bulky substituents at a- and / -positions. These issues will be the subject of increasing attention in the future. 

Takemoto et al. discovered N-phosphinoyl-protected aldimines as suitable electrophilic substrates for the enantioselective aza-Henry [224] (nitro-Mannich) reaction [72] with nitromethane, when utilizing thiourea 12 (10mol%) as the catalyst in dichloromethane at room temperature [225]. The (S)-favored 1,2-addition of nitromethane to the electron-deficient C=N double bond allowed access to various P-aryl substituted N-phosphinoyl-protected adducts 1-5 in consistently moderate to good yields (72-87%) and moderate enantioselectivities (63-76%) as depicted in Scheme 6.73. Employing nitroethane under unchanged reaction conditions gave adduct 6 as a mixture of diastereomers (dr 73 27) at an ee value of 67% (83% yield) of the major isomer (Scheme 6.73). 

In 2007, Chen and co-workers reported the 122-catalyzed (10mol% loading) enantioselective Michael addition [149-152] of ethyl a-cyanoacetate to various electron-rich and electron-deficient trans-chalcones [283]. The reaction was performed for a broad spectrum of chalcones and gave the corresponding adducts in yields of 80-95% and in ee values of 83-95%, but at low sy /a ti-diastereoselectiv-ities as shown for representative products 1-8 in Scheme 6.125. 

Nnmerons other protocols have been developed to prepare magnesium enolates by asymmetric 1,4-addition of Grignard reagents to electron-deficient alkenes. Recently, an enantioselective metal-catalyzed version of this key reaction has been studied with enones and a, S-unsaturated thioesters Using chiral ferrocenyl-based diphosphines leads to... 

A number of techniques are now available allowing the preparation of enantiomerically pure (or at least enriched) compounds via asymmetric nucleophilic addition to electron-deficient alkenes. Some of these transformations have already been successfully applied in total synthesis. In most cases, the methods are based on diastereoselective reactions, employing chirally modified substrates or nucleophiles. There are only very few useful enantioselective procedures accessible so far. The search for efficient en-antioselective methods, especially for those which are catalytic and do not require the use of stoichiometric amounts of chiral auxiliaries, remains a challenging task for the future. 

An interesting enantioselective addition-allyl-transfer sequence of an electron-deficient alkene 163 with alkyliodides and allyltributylstannane 164 was described... 

Two other types of catalysts have been investigated for the enantioselective Strecker-type reactions. Chiral N-oxide catalyst 24 has been utilized in the trimethylsilyl cyanide promoted addition to aldimines to afford the corresponding aminonitriles with enantioselectivities up to 73% ee [14]. Electron-deficient aldimines were the best substrates, but unfortunately an equimolar amount of catalyst 24 was used in these reactions. The asymmetric Strecker addition of trimethylsilyl cyanide to a ketimine with titanium-based BINOL catalyst 25 gave fast conversions to quarternary aminonitriles with enantiomeric excesses to 59%... 

Bertrand, S., Hoffmann, N., and Pete, J.P. (2000) Highly efficient and stereoselective radical addition of tertiary amines to electron-deficient alkenes-application to the enantioselective synthesis of necine bases. European Journal of Organic Chemistry, 82, 2227—2238. 

Recently, the transition-metal-catalyzed addition of active methylene C-H bonds to electron-deficient olefins having a carbonyl, a nitrile, or a sulfonyl group has been extensively studied by several research groups. In particular, the asymmetric version of this type of catalytic reaction provides a new route to the enantioselective construction of quaternary carbon centers [88]. Another topic of recent interest is the catalytic addition of active methylene C-H bonds to acetylenes, allenes, conjugate ene-ynes, and nitrile C-N triple bonds. In this section, the ruthenium-catalyzed addition of C-H bonds in active methylene compounds to carbonyl groups and C-C multiple bonds is described. 

A few cases of enantioselective conjugate addition of O-nucleophiles to electron-deficient alkenes are also known. They are all based on enzymatic catalysis and are summarized in Section 4.7.2. 

Electron-deficient alkenes (e.g., NCHC=C(COOMe)2) can be aziridinated with 0-(aryl-sulfonyl)hydroxylamines <9lCOS(7)469>. The reaction is believed to involve a Michael addition followed by cyclization with expulsion of a sulfonate anion. Less electrophilic alkenes react in lower yield but with high stereoselectivity (Equation (2)). The chiral catalyst prepared from an optically active bisoxazoline and Cu(I)triflate is effective in promoting the enantioselective aziridination of alkenes <93JA5328>. The addition of nitrosyl chloride to alkenes, which are especially susceptible to... 

---