Enantioselective Carbonylation Reactions

Carmen Claver, Cyril Godard, Aurora Ruiz, Oscar Pdmies, Montserrat Dieguez 3.1 

The hydroformylation reaction in which olefins are converted into aldehydes is the homogeneous transition metal catalyzed reaction used today for largest volume production. This reaction has been extensively studied, and nowadays a number of 

Modem Carbonylation Methods. Edited by liszlo Kollar 

Copyright 2008 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH Co. KGaA, Weinheim 

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Catalytic Enantioselective Cycloaddition Reactions of Carbonyl Compounds... 

This chapter will focus on the development of catalytic enantioselective cycloaddition reactions of carbonyl compounds with conjugated dienes (Scheme 4.1) [3]. 

The main strategy for catalytic enantioselective cycloaddition reactions of carbonyl compounds is the use of a chiral Lewis acid catalyst. This approach is probably the most efficient and economic way to effect an enantioselective reaction, because it allows the direct formation of chiral compounds from achiral substrates under mild conditions and requires a sub-stoichiometric amount of chiral material. 

To achieve catalytic enantioselective cycloaddition reactions of carbonyl compounds, coordination of a chiral Lewis acid to the carbonyl functionality is necessary. This coordination activates the substrate and provides the chiral environment that forces the approach of a diene to the substrate from the less sterically hindered face, introducing enantioselectivity into the reaction. 

The catalytic enantioselective cycloaddition reaction of carbonyl compounds with conjugated dienes has been in intensive development in recent years with the main focus on synthetic aspects the number of mechanistic studies has been limited. This chapter will focus on the development and understanding of cycloaddition reactions of carbonyl compounds with chiral Lewis acid catalysts for the preparation of optically active six-membered ring systems. 

Some of the developments of catalytic enantioselective cycloaddition reactions of carbonyl compounds have origin in Diels-Alder chemistry, where many of the catalysts have been applied. This is valid for catalysts which enable monodentate coordination of the carbonyl functionality, such as the chiral aluminum and boron complexes. New chiral catalysts for cycloaddition reactions of carbonyl compounds have, however, also been developed. 

Chiral boron(III) Lewis acid catalysts have also been used for enantioselective cycloaddition reactions of carbonyl compounds [17]. The chiral acyloxylborane catalysts 9a-9d, which are also efficient catalysts for asymmetric Diels-Alder reactions [17, 18], can also catalyze highly enantioselective cycloaddition reactions of aldehydes with activated dienes. The arylboron catalysts 9b-9c which are air- and moisture-stable have been shown by Yamamoto et al. to induce excellent chiral induction in the cycloaddition reaction between, e.g., benzaldehyde and Danishefsky s dienes such as 2b with up to 95% yield and 97% ee of the cycloaddition product CIS-3b (Scheme 4.9) [17]. 

Chiral salen chromium and cobalt complexes have been shown by Jacobsen et al. to catalyze an enantioselective cycloaddition reaction of carbonyl compounds with dienes [22]. The cycloaddition reaction of different aldehydes 1 containing aromatic, aliphatic, and conjugated substituents with Danishefsky s diene 2a catalyzed by the chiral salen-chromium(III) complexes 14a,b proceeds in up to 98% yield and with moderate to high ee (Scheme 4.14). It was found that the presence of oven-dried powdered 4 A molecular sieves led to increased yield and enantioselectivity. The lowest ee (62% ee, catalyst 14b) was obtained for hexanal and the highest (93% ee, catalyst 14a) was obtained for cyclohexyl aldehyde. The mechanism of the cycloaddition reaction was investigated in terms of a traditional cycloaddition, or formation of the cycloaddition product via a Mukaiyama aldol-reaction path. In the presence of the chiral salen-chromium(III) catalyst system NMR spectroscopy of the crude reaction mixture of the reaction of benzaldehyde with Danishefsky s diene revealed the exclusive presence of the cycloaddition-pathway product. The Mukaiyama aldol condensation product was prepared independently and subjected to the conditions of the chiral salen-chromium(III)-catalyzed reactions. No detectable cycloaddition product could be observed. These results point towards a [2-i-4]-cydoaddition mechanism. 

Jacobsen et al. took an important step towards the development of a more general catalytic enantioselective cycloaddition reaction of carbonyl compounds by introducing chiral tridentate Schiff base chromium(III) complexes 15 (Scheme 4.15)... 

The interest in chiral titanium(IV) complexes as catalysts for reactions of carbonyl compounds has, e.g., been the application of BINOL-titanium(IV) complexes for ene reactions [8, 19]. In the field of catalytic enantioselective cycloaddition reactions, methyl glyoxylate 4b reacts with isoprene 5b catalyzed by BINOL-TiX2 20 to give the cycloaddition product 6c and the ene product 7b in 1 4 ratio enantio-selectivity is excellent - 97% ee for the cycloaddition product (Scheme 4.19) [28]. 

A simple approach for the formation of 2-substituted 3,4-dihydro-2H-pyrans, which are useful precursors for natural products such as optically active carbohydrates, is the catalytic enantioselective cycloaddition reaction of a,/ -unsaturated carbonyl compounds with electron-rich alkenes. This is an inverse electron-demand cycloaddition reaction which is controlled by a dominant interaction between the LUMO of the 1-oxa-1,3-butadiene and the HOMO of the alkene (Scheme 4.2, right). This is usually a concerted non-synchronous reaction with retention of the configuration of the die-nophile and results in normally high regioselectivity, which in the presence of Lewis acids is improved and, furthermore, also increases the reaction rate. 

The major developments of catalytic enantioselective cycloaddition reactions of carbonyl compounds with conjugated dienes have been presented. A variety of chiral catalysts is available for the different types of carbonyl compound. For unactivated aldehydes chiral catalysts such as BINOL-aluminum(III), BINOL-tita-nium(IV), acyloxylborane(III), and tridentate Schiff base chromium(III) complexes can catalyze highly diastereo- and enantioselective cycloaddition reactions. The mechanism of these reactions can be a stepwise pathway via a Mukaiyama aldol intermediate or a concerted mechanism. For a-dicarbonyl compounds, which can coordinate to the chiral catalyst in a bidentate fashion, the chiral BOX-copper(II)... 

The first reports on enantioselective addition reactions of achiral organometallic reagents, modified by aprotic chiral additives, described the addition of Grignard reagents to prostereogenic carbonyl compounds in the presence of ( + )-(/ ,/J)-2,3-dimethoxybutane (l)4 5, (-)-tetrahydro-2-methylfuran (2)6, (-)-l-[(tetrahydro-2-furanyl)methyl]pyrrolidine (3)7 or (-)-sparteine (4)8. The enantioselectivity, however, was poor (0-22% ee). 

Table 4. Utilization of 1,3-Dicarbon-Substituted Allyl Anions in Enantioselective Carbonyl Addition Reactions...

It has been observed, however, that the enantioselectivity of reactions of tartrate ester modified allylboronates with metal carbonyl complexes of unsaturated aldehydes are significantly improved compared with the results with the metal-free, uncomplexed aldehydes72. Two such examples involve the (benzaldehyde)tricarbonylchromium complex and the hexacarbonyl(2-... 

The majority of catalytic enantioselective allylation reactions involve the chiral Lewis-acid-catalysed additions of allylsilanes or allylstannanes to carbonyl compounds. Monothiobinaphthol has been used by Woodward et al. as a chiral promoter in the enantioselective catalytic allylation of aryl ketones with impure Sn(allyl)4, prepared from allyl chloride, air-oxidised magnesium and SnCl4. Therefore, the allylation of arylketones in these conditions was achieved very efficiently, since the corresponding allylic alcohols were formed in... 

A full account5 describes the enantioselective carbonyl-ene reaction of... 

Bifunctional thiourea-catalysed enantioselective Michael reaction has been achieved. The thiourea moiety and an amino group of the catalyst activated a nitroolefin and a 1,3-dicarbonyl compound, respectively afford the Michael adduct with high enantioselectivity.177,178 Thioureas work as one of the most effective and general enantioselective nitro-Mannich reaction and carbonyl cyanation catalyst.179,180... 

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