Enantioselective iridium complexes

More recently, the same type of hgand was used to form chiral iridium complexes, which were used as catalysts in the hydrogenation of ketones. The inclusion of hydrophihc substituents in the aromatic rings of the diphenylethylenediamine (Fig. 23) allowed the use of the corresponding complexes in water or water/alcohol solutions [72]. This method was optimized in order to recover and reuse the aqueous solution of the catalyst after product extraction with pentane. The combination of chiral 1,2-bis(p-methoxyphenyl)-N,M -dimethylethylenediamine and triethyleneglycol monomethyl ether in methanol/water was shown to be the best method, with up to six runs with total acetophenone conversion and 65-68% ee. Only in the seventh run did the yield and the enantioselectivity decrease slightly. 

In 1998, Ruiz et al. reported the synthesis of new chiral dithioether ligands based on a pyrrolidine backbone from (+ )-L-tartaric acid. Their corresponding cationic iridium complexes were further evaluated as catalysts for the asymmetric hydrogenation of prochiral dehydroamino acid derivatives and itaconic acid, providing enantioselectivities of up to 68% ee, as shown in Scheme 8.18. 

Takemoto and Miyabe recently found that the iridium complex of pybox L4 catalyzed the reaction to form the branched product with good enantioselectivity (Equation (3)).10 In the presence of CsOHH20, the reaction of phosphate 26 with BnONHBz proceeded smoothly to give the branched product 27 with 92% ee. 

Catalyst 58, in which the oxazoline ring has been replaced with an imidazoline, gave ee-values in the low 90% region for substrates 36 and 38-40 [42]. However, for certain substrates (see Section 30.5), replacement of the oxazoline by an imidazoline has resulted in significantly higher enantioselectivity. Recently, a number of pyridine- and quinoline-derived iridium complexes 59-62 have been developed, which gave promising enantioselectivities with substrates 36-39 [43, 44]. However, these catalysts cannot yet compete with the most efficient oxazoline-based complexes and complex 14. 

During recent years, substantial progress has been made in the hydrogenation of unfunctionalized alkenes. With iridium complexes derived from chiral phos-phino-oxazolines and related ligands, excellent enantioselectivities and high TON/TOF values can now be obtained for a wide range of unfunctionalized olefins. Most substrates studied to date have at least one aryl substituent at the... 

The mechanistic basis of iridium-complex-catalyzed enantioselective hydrogenation is less secure than in the rhodium case. It is well known that square-planar iridium complexes exhibit a stronger affinity for dihydrogen than their rhodium counterparts. In earlier studies, Crabtree et al. investigated the addition of H2 to their complex and observed two stereoisomeric intermediate dihydrides in the hydrogenation of the coordinated cycloocta-1,5-diene. The observations were in contrast to the course of H2 addition to Ms-phosphine iridium complexes [69]. 

There have been many reports of the use of iridium-catalyzed transfer hydrogenation of carbonyl compounds, and this section focuses on more recent examples where the control of enantioselectivity is not considered. In particular, recent interest has been in the use of iridium A -heterocyclic carbene complexes as active catalysts for transfer hydrogenation. However, alternative iridium complexes are effective catalysts [1, 2] and the air-stable complex 1 has been shown to be exceptionally active for the transfer hydrogenation of ketones [3]. For example, acetophenone 2 was converted into the corresponding alcohol 3 using only 0.001 mol% of this... 

The phosphoramidite ligands that are the focus of the remainder of this chapter have prompted the investigation of ligands containing related structures. Iridium complexes of aspartic acid-derived P-chirogenic diaminophosphine oxides (DlAPHOXs) catalyze the amination [62] and alkylation [63] of aUyhc carbonates (Scheme 6). With BSA as base and catalytic amounts of NaPFs as additive, branched amination and alkylation products were obtained from cinnamyl carbonates in excellent yields and enantioselectivities. However, the yields and enantios-electivities were lower for the reactions of alkyl-substituted aUyhc carbonates. Added LiOAc increased the enantioselectivities of aUyhc alkylation products. 

No examples have been reported of enantioselective, iridium-catalyzed allylic substitutions of linear allylic esters to generate 1,1-disubstituted or 2-substituted 7i-allyl intermediates. Takeuchi published reactions in which the proposed allylir-idium intermediates are 1,1- or 1,3-disubstituted, but these substrates have not been shown to undergo reactions catalyzed by chiral iridium complexes. No reactions of 1,2-disubstituted substrates have been published (Scheme 34). 

Diastereomerically pure iridium complexes of the formula [(ri -C5Me5)lr (/ )-Pro-phos (activated alkene)](SbF6)2 (activated alkene = enal, methacrylonitrile) are active, and selective catalysts for the DCR between one point binding activated alkenes and nitrones. Enals coordinate to the metal in a completely diastereoselec-tive way with a restricted geometry. From the point of view of the selectivity, a key point in enal coordination is the establishment of CH/n-attractive interactions between the CHO aldehyde proton and one (f )-Prophos phenyl group. This interaction fixes the methacrolein rotamer around the M-O bonds and renders the system enantioselective. 

The cationic iridium complex [Ir(cod)(PPh3)2]OTf, when activated by H2, catalyzes the aldol reaction of aldehydes 141 or acetal with silyl enol ethers 142 to afford 143 (Equation 10.37) [63]. The same Ir complex catalyzes the coupling of a, 5-enones with silyl enol ethers to give 1,5-dicarbonyl compounds [64]. Furthermore, the alkylation of propargylic esters 144 with silyl enol ethers 145 catalyzed by [Ir(cod)[P(OPh)3]2]OTf gives alkylated products 146 in high yields (Equation 10.38) [65]. An iridium-catalyzed enantioselective reductive aldol reaction has also been reported [66]. 

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