Enantioselective enamide hydrogenation

With the basic (albeit unconventional) tools at hand, we will focus in the following on the detection of key intermediates with standard NMR and the application of the PHIP method to mechanistic studies of enantioselective enamide hydrogenations. 

Figure 9.15 Rhodium monohydrides in enantioselective enamide hydrogenation that were characterized by conventional NMR spectroscopy.

Several S/N ligands have also been investigated for the asymmetric hydrogenation of prochiral olefins. Thus, asymmetric enamide hydrogenations have been performed in the presence of S/N ligands and rhodium or ruthenium catalysts by Lemaire et al., giving enantioselectivities of up to 70% ee. Two... 

Enantioselective catalytic hydrogenation. The ruthenium(II) complexes of (R)- and (S)-l, bearing a chiral BINAP ligand, catalyze asymmetric hydrogenation of N-acyl-l-alkylidenetetrahydroisoquinolines to give (1R)- or (lS)-tetrahydroiso-quinolines in 95-100% ee.1 Thus the (Z)-enamide (2), prepared by acylation of 3,4-dihydropapaverine, is hydrogenated in the presence of (R)-l to (1R)-tetrahydroisoquinolines (3). The enantiomeric (lS)-3 is obtained on use of (S)-l as catalyst. 

Ferrocenyl-based ligands comprise a versatile class of auxiliaries because they can be easily modified at the benzylic position with retention of configuration and can incorporate both central and planar chiralities. The appropriate balance of steric and electronic factors has provided ferrocenyl derivatives featuring chelating P,N properties that proved beneficial in numerous enantioselective transformations [50]. Among more recent applications, they could be utilized very efficiently in Pd-catalyzed hydrosilylation (14 >99% ee) [51] and hydroboration (>94% ee) [52] of olefins, allylic amination (99 % ee) [53], Suzuki cross coupling reactions (Section 2.11) [54], and enamide hydrogenation (>99% ee) [55]. 

Enamides can also be efficiently hydrogenated with chiral Rh-complexes. The Rh complexes of Ph-BPE,f > BICP, TangPhos, SIPHOS,f and others have been shown to catalyze the hydrogenation of a mixture of (E) and (Z) P-methyl-a-phenylenamides 161 with excellent enantioselectivities. The hydrogenation of 2- and 3-substituted A -acetylindoles with the Ph-TRAP-Rh system was also possible with high ee. (R,S,S,R)-D10P was shown to be an excellent catalyst system for a variety of aromatic enamides. ... 

In 2006, Berens et al. reported the synthesis of novel benzothiophene-based DuPHOS analogues, which gave excellent levels of enantioselectivity when applied as the ligands to the asymmetric rhodium-catalysed hydrogenation of various olefins, such as dehydroamino acid derivatives, enamides and itaco-nates (Scheme 8.10). ... 

The results clearly show that these novel ligands are able to form a suitable asymmetric enviromnent around the metal resulting in high asymmetric induction. Their catalytic potential has been demonstrated in the highly enantioselective Rh-catalyzed hydrogenation of itaconates and a-enamides and Ru-catalyzed hydrogenation of p-functionalized ketone. 

In the early 1990s, Burk introduced a new series of efficient chiral bisphospholane ligands BPE and DuPhos.55,55a-55c The invention of these ligands has expanded the scope of substrates in Rh-catalyzed enantioselective hydrogenation. For example, with Rh-DuPhos or Rh-BPE as catalysts, extremely high efficiencies have been observed in the asymmetric hydrogenation of a-(acylamino)acrylic acids, enamides, enol acetates, /3-keto esters, unsaturated carboxylic acids, and itaconic acids. 

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