Enantiomeric excesses

The very first investigations on this topic pointed out that a similar degree of optical purity is achievable for some reactions in microreactor as compared to conventional processing. Hence there is no reason not to investigate a chiral reaction in a micro reactor the feasibility has been proven. 

For example, the hydrogenation of methyl (Z)-a-acetamidocinnamate gives a chiral product when conducted in the presence of a chiral diphosphine catalyst. The enantiomeric excess data for micro-reactor and batch operation are in line when performed imder similar conditions [169]. A very high reproducibility of determining data on enantiomeric excess was reported [170]. In addition, the ee distribution was quite narrow 90% of aU ee data were within 40-48% [170]. 

A mixture of equal amounts of two enantiomers—such as (i )-(-)-lactic acid and (5)-(+)-lactic acid—is called a racemic mixture or a racemate. Racemic mixtures are optically inactive because for every molecule in a racemic mixture that rotates the plane of polarization in one direction, there is a mirror-image molecule that rotates the plane in the opposite direction. As a result, the light emerges from a racemic mixture with its plane of polarization unchanged. The symbol ( ) is used to specify a racemic mixture. Thus, ( )-2-bromobutane indicates a mixture of 50% (-t-)-2-bromobutane and 50% (-)-2-bromobutane. 

The observed rotation of 2.0 g of a compound in 50 mL of solution in a polarimeter tube 20-cm long is -1-13.4°. What is the specific rotation of the compound  

Whether a particular sample of a compound consists of a single enantiomer, a racemic mixture, or a mixture of enantiomers in unequal amounts can be determined by its observed specific rotation, which is the specific rotation of the sample. 

For example, if a sample of (5)-(-l-)-2-bromobutane is enantiomerically pure (meaning only one enantiomer is present), it will have an observed specific rotation of -1-23.1 because its specific rotation is -1-23.1. If, however, the sample of 2-bromobutane is a racemic mixture, it will have an observed specific rotation of 0. If the observed specific rotation is positive but less than -1-23.1, we will know that the sample is a mixture of enantiomers and that the mixture contains more of the S enantiomer than the R enantiomer, because the S enantiomer is dextrorotatory. 

The enantiomeric excess (ee), also called the optical purity, tells us how much of an excess of one enantiomer is in the mixture. It can be calculated from the observed specific rotation  

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Q, = 0, implying a change of chirality. In this context, the enantiomeric excess can be defined by the probability... 

Interestingly, G jrey et al.", employing a similar tryptophan-derived catalyst (3.4), observed a 99% enantiomeric excess (ee) in the Diels-Alder reaction of 2-bromoacrolein with cyclopentadiene... 

Evans and co-workers investigated the effect of a number of -symmetric bis(oxazoline) ligands on the copper(II)-catalysed Diels-Alder reaction of an N-acyloxazolidinone with cyclopentadiene. Enantiomeric excesses of up to 99% have been reported (Scheme 3.4). Evans et al." suggested transition state assembly 3.7, with a square planar coordination environment around the central copper ion. In this scheme the dienophile should be coordinated predominantly in an cisoid fashion in... 

Figure 3.3. Enantiomeric excess of the Diels-Alder reaction of 3.8c with 3.9 as a function of the pH.

Table 3.3. Influence of temperature and ethanol content on the enantiomeric excess of the Diels-Alder reaction between 3.8c and 3.9 catalysed by [Cu(L-tryptophan)] in aqueous...

Likewise, the influence of the ligand catalyst ratio has been investigated. Increase of this ratio up to 1.75 1 resulted in a slight improvement of the enantioselectivity of the copper(L-tryptophan)-catalysed Diels-Alder reaction. Interestingly, reducing the ligand catalyst ratio from 1 1 to 0.5 1 resulted in a drop of the enantiomeric excess from 25 to 18 % instead of the expected 12.5 %. Hence, as anticipated, ligand accelerated catalysis is operative. 

Table 3.4. Enantiomeric excess and reaction times of the copper(L-abrine)-catalysed Diels-Alder reaction of3.8cwith3.9in different solvents at 0 C.

The enantiomeric excess of 3.10c has been determined by HPLC analysis using a Daicel Chiracel OD column and eluting with a 60 / 1 (v/v) hexane(HPLC-grade) / 2-propanol(p.a.) mixture. At a flow of 1 ml per minute the rentention times for the different isomers of 3.10c were 6.3 min. (exo, major enantiomer) 7.1 min. (exo, minor enantiomer) 7.7 min. (endo, major enantiomer) 10.7 min. (endo, minor enantiomer). 

Determination of the enantiomeric excess of 3.10c has also been performed using Eu(tfc)j. Results... 

The enantiomeric excess (ee) is defined as %(major enantiomer) - %(minor enantiomer). 

Asymmetric hydrogenation has been achieved with dissolved Wilkinson type catalysts (A. J. Birch, 1976 D. Valentine, Jr., 1978 H.B. Kagan, 1978). The (R)- and (S)-[l,l -binaph-thalene]-2,2 -diylblsCdiphenylphosphine] (= binap ) complexes of ruthenium (A. Miyashita, 1980) and rhodium (A. Miyashita, 1984 R. Noyori, 1987) have been prepared as pure atrop-isomers and used for the stereoselective Noyori hydrogenation of a-(acylamino) acrylic acids and, more significantly, -keto carboxylic esters. In the latter reaction enantiomeric excesses of more than 99% are often achieved (see also M. Nakatsuka, 1990, p. 5586). 

In cases where Noyori s reagent (see p. 102f.) and other enantioselective reducing agents are not successful, (+)- or (—)-chlorodiisopinocampheylborane (Ipc BCl) may help. This reagent reduces prochiral aryl and tert-alkyl ketones with exceptionally high enantiomeric excesses (J. Chandrasekharan, 1985 H.C. Brown, 1986). The initially formed boron moiety is usually removed hy precipitation with diethanolamine. Ipc2BCl has, for example, been applied to synthesize polymer-supported chiral epoxides with 90% e.e. from Merrifield resins (T. Antonsson, 1989). 

Only reaction 1 provides a direct pathway to this chiral molecule the intermediate 2-methyl-butanal may be silylated and reacted with formaldehyde in the presence of the boronated tartaric ester described on page 61. The enantiomeric excess may, however, be low. 

Mixtures containing equal quantities of enantiomers are called racemic mixtures Racemic mixtures are optically inactive Conversely when one enantiomer is present m excess a net rotation of the plane of polarization is observed At the limit where all the molecules are of the same handedness we say the substance is optically pure Optical purity or percent enantiomeric excess is defined as... 

Enantiomeric excess (Section 7 4) Difference between the per centage of the major enantiomer present in a mixture and the percentage of its mirror image An optically pure material has an enantiomenc excess of 100% A racemic mixture has an enantiomeric excess of zero... 

The method does not require optically pure a-pinene because 100% enantiomeric excess (ee) is achieved by crystallisation of the intermediate TMEDA-2IpcBH2 adduct, where TMEDA = (CHg )2NCH2CH2N(CH3 )2 (tetramethylethylenediamine). Other chiral monoalkylboranes derived from 2-alkyl- and 2-phenylapopinene are slightly more selective reagents as compared to monoisopinocampheylborane (66—68). 

Lactic acid is also the simplest hydroxy acid that is optically active. L (+)-Lactic acid [79-33-4] (1) occurs naturally ia blood and ia many fermentation products (7). The chemically produced lactic acid is a racemic mixture and some fermentations also produce the racemic mixture or an enantiomeric excess of D (—)-lactic acid [10326-41-7] (2) (8). 

In a similar way, several cephalosporins have been hydrolyzed to 7-aminodeacetoxycephalosporanic acid (72), and nocardicin C to 6-aminonocardicinic acid (73). Penicillin G amidase from Pscherichia coli has been used in an efficient resolution of a racemic cis intermediate required for a preparation of the synthon required for synthesis of the antibiotic Loracarbef (74). The racemic intermediate (21) underwent selective acylation to yield the cis derivative (22) in 44% yield the product displayed a 97% enantiomeric excess (ee). 

The primary disadvantage of the conjugate addition approach is the necessity of performing two chiral operations (resolution or asymmetric synthesis) ia order to obtain exclusively the stereochemicaHy desired end product. However, the advent of enzymatic resolutions and stereoselective reduciag agents has resulted ia new methods to efficiently produce chiral enones and CO-chain synthons, respectively (see Enzymes, industrial Enzymes in ORGANIC synthesis). Eor example, treatment of the racemic hydroxy enone (70) with commercially available porciae pancreatic Hpase (PPL) ia vinyl acetate gave a separable mixture of (5)-hydroxyenone (71) and (R)-acetate (72) with enantiomeric excess (ee) of 90% or better (204). 

The reaction is characteristic of the usual Michael addition of hydroperoxide anion, yielding enantiomeric excesses up to 45%. 

An asymmetric synthesis of estrone begins with an asymmetric Michael addition of lithium enolate (178) to the scalemic sulfoxide (179). Direct treatment of the cmde Michael adduct with y /i7-chloroperbenzoic acid to oxidize the sulfoxide to a sulfone, followed by reductive removal of the bromine affords (180, X = a and PH R = H) in over 90% yield. Similarly to the conversion of (175) to (176), base-catalyzed epimerization of (180) produces an 85% isolated yield of (181, X = /5H R = H). C8 and C14 of (181) have the same relative and absolute stereochemistry as that of the naturally occurring steroids. Methylation of (181) provides (182). A (CH2)2CuLi-induced reductive cleavage of sulfone (182) followed by stereoselective alkylation of the resultant enolate with an allyl bromide yields (183). Ozonolysis of (183) produces (184) (wherein the aldehydric oxygen is by isopropyUdene) in 68% yield. Compound (184) is the optically active form of Ziegler s intermediate (176), and is converted to (+)-estrone in 6.3% overall yield and >95% enantiomeric excess (200). 

The ratio of yy -epoxide (shown above) to ant -eipoxide is 10—25 1 with TYZORTPT catalysis, whereas vanadjdacetylacetonate is less selective and y -chloroperoxybenzoic acid gives the reverse 1 25 ratio. It is supposed that TYZOR TPT esterifies the free hydroxyl, then coordinates with the peroxide to favor yy -epoxidation (135). This procedure is related to that for enantioselective epoxidation of other allyflc alcohols in 9—95% enantiomeric excess (135). 

Quantitative Analysis of Selectivity. One of the principal synthetic values of enzymes stems from their unique enantioselectivity, ie, abihty to discriminate between enantiomers of a racemic pair. Detailed quantitative analysis of kinetic resolutions of enantiomers relating the extent of conversion of racemic substrate (c), enantiomeric excess (ee), and the enantiomeric ratio (E) has been described in an excellent series of articles (7,15,16). 

Fig. 2. Enantiomeric excess ee) as a function of the conversion for various enantiomeric ratios (E) noted on the curves (a) remaining substrate,...

Optically active thiiranes have been obtained by resolution of racemic mixtures by chiral tri-o-thymotide. The dextrorotatory thymotide prefers the (5,5)-enantiomer of 2,3-dimethylthiirane which forms a 2 1 host guest complex. A 30% enantiomeric excess of (5,5)-(—)-2,3-dimethylthiirane is obtained (80JA1157). 

Figure 2.24, Determination of the enantiomeric excess of 1-phenylethanol [30, 0.1 mmol in 0.3 ml CDCI3, 25 °C] by addition of the chiral praseodymium chelate 29b (0.1 mmol), (a, b) H NMR spectra (400 MHz), (a) without and (b) with the shift reagent 29b. (c, d) C NMR spectra (100 MHz), (c) without and (d) with the shift reagent 29b. In the C NMR spectrum (d) only the C-a atoms of enantiomers 30R and 30S are resolved. The H and C signals of the phenyl residues are not shifted these are not shown for reasons of space. The evaluation of the integrals gives 73 % R and 27 % S, i.e. an enantiomeric excess (ee) of 46 %...

The optical purity is numerical equivalent to the enantiomeric excess (e.e.), which is defined as... 

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