Enantioselective Michael addition reaction

Wang identified a series of Michael/Michael and Michael/aldol sequences catalysed by diarylprolinol ethers that led directly to densely functionalised five-mem-bered rings [172-174]. For example, highly diastereoselective and enantioselective double Michael addition reactions were achieved by treatment of a,p-unsaturated aldehydes with triester 113 catalysed by 30 (Scheme 45). Initial conjugate addition... 

An enantioselective intermolecular Michael addition of aldehydes (138) to enones (139), catalysed by imidazolidinones (140), has been reported. Chemoselectivity (Michael addition versus aldol) can be controlled through judicious choice of hydrogen bond-donating co-catalysts. The optimal imidazolidinone-hydrogen bond donor pair affords Michael addition products in <90% ee. Furthermore, the enamine intermediate was isolated and characterized and its efficacy as a nucleophile in the observed Michael addition reactions was demonstrated.172... 

Various carbocyclic structures were accessed via a highly regio- and enantioselective aminocatalytic Michael addition of cyclic enals to vinyl phosphonates followed by a one-pot intramolecular HWE reaction. ... 

A highly enantioselective organocatalytic Michael addition of 4-hydroxycouma-rines and related compounds to a,p-unsaturated ketones has been also achieved using imidazolidine catalyst 137 [213]. The reaction, which gives high yields and enantioselectivities for a wide range of cyclic 1,3-dicarbonyl compounds and enones, has been successfully employed for the asymmetric synthesis of the anticoagulant warfarin (Scheme 2.78) and derivatives [213], With respect to the reaction mechanism, very recent studies have demonstrated that the truly active catalyst in the process was the chiral diamine 138, which is formed in catalytic amounts under the reaction conditions by reaction with the hydroxycoumarine (Schane 2.79)... 

The possibilities of enantioselective sulfa-Michael additions using amino derivatives of Cinchona alkaloids are also demonstrated through tandem (cascade, domino) reactions, thus allowing the formation of multiple stereocentres with up to 99% ee. In comparison to Cfnc/zona-thiourea derivatives, natural Cinchona alkaloids or their ethers gave lower... 

Due to the unique bivalent carbene and diversity of the N-heterocyclic motif, NHCs have been demonstrated to be efficient organocatalysts for various enantioselective reactions. In addition to the traditional thioazolium and imidazolium NHCs, triazolium NHCs have become the most successful organocatalysts. Recently, NHC/Lewis acid cocatalysis and bifunctional NHCs have shown a very promising future. Beyond the classic NHC-catalysed umpolung of aldehydes, the extended umpolung of functionalised aldehydes are extremely successful. A series of NHC-catalysed reactions of ketenes have been developed for the synthesis of various enantioriched heterocycles. Esters, anhydrides, carboxylic acids and even Michael acceptors are useful alternative substrates for NHC-catalysed reactions. With increasing interest and rapid development of NHC catalysis, new structures of the catalysts, new reaction modes, and synthetic applications can be expected in the near future. 

In 2008, Barbas et al. developed the first enantioselective thioester Michael addition of simple trifluoroethyl thioesters, thereby establishing a new class of nucleophiles for direct catalytic reactions. Indeed, these nucleophiles were condensed onto a series of a,p-unsaturated aldehydes in the presence of 2-[bis(3,5-bistrifluoromethylphenyl)trimethylsilylanyloxymethyl]pyrrolidine as an... 

This type of catalyst was also employed by Christmann et al. to promote the asymmetric intramolecular Diels Alder reaction of tethered a,p-unsaturated dialdehydes in the presence of benzoic acid as a co-catalyst through vinylogous enamine activation. The corresponding cycloadducts were obtained in good yields and excellent enantioselectivities of up to 98% ee, as shown in Scheme 6.6. When one of the aldehyde functions was replaced by an a,p-unsaturated ketone as the acceptor, no formal [4 -I- 2] cycloaddition was observed instead, a direct enantioselective vinylogous Michael addition occurred. 

Thiourea derivatives are a specific group of organocatalysts. Most of them were developed by the groups of Jacobsen [23,24] and Takemoto [25,26], and designed for enantioselective or chiral variants of classic synthetic reactions, such as the Mannich reaction, Michael addition, the aza-Henry reaction, Strecker cyanide addition and some others. 

The same year, jOTgensen and coworkers reported an enantioselective aza-Michael addition to enones using hydrazones as nucleophiles and cinchona alkaloids as catalyst [104]. This base-catalyzed reaction renders the final aminated products in good yields but only moderate enantioselectivities (up to 77% ee). 

Catalytic asymmetric Michael addition is an important reaction for creating carbon-carbon bonds with enantioselectivity. This reaction can be combined with other catalytic transformations to build up complex organic structures. A successful example is the enantioselective cascade Michael addition/H -hydrogenation catalyzed by ruthenium hydride borohydride complexes containing P-aminophosphine ligands 26 (Scheme 5.13) [19]. This approach has been extended to pentenones, heptenones, and nitrostyrene Michael acceptors and malonitrile Michael donors. 

The Smith group, in 2011, developed a highly diastereo- and enantioselective intramolecular Michael addition/lactonization reaction. The authors applied a chiral tetramisole (74) to catalyze the cycHzation of multifunctional substrates 75 or 77, affording fused indanes 76 or dihydrobenzofuran carboxylates 78, respectively, in good yields and with excellent ees (Scheme 36.20) [26]. 

As shown above, it was not so easy to optimize the Michael addition reactions of l-crotonoyl-3,5-dimethylpyrazole in the presence of the l ,J -DBFOX/ Ph-Ni(C104)2 3H20 catalyst because a simple tendency of influence to enantio-selectivity is lacking. Therefore, we changed the acceptor to 3-crotonoyl-2-oxazolidi-none in the reactions of malononitrile in dichloromethane in the presence of the nickel(II) aqua complex (10 mol%) (Scheme 7.49). For the Michael additions using the oxazolidinone acceptor, dichloromethane was better solvent than THF and the enantioselectivities were rather independent upon the reaction temperatures and Lewis base catalysts. Chemical yields were also satisfactory. 

Finally we have performed the Michael addition reactions of malononitrile and 3-(2-alkenoyl)-2-oxazolidinones in dichloromethane in the presence of the R,R-DBF0X/Ph-Ni(C104)2-31 20 and TMP (10 mol% each). Enantioselectivities were a little lower than 90% ee for acceptors having a variety of / -substituents. The best selectivity was 94% ee in the reaction of t-butyl-substituted acceptor (Scheme 7.50). 

With the use of chiral reagents a differentiation of enantiotopic faces is possible, leading to an enantioselective reaction. The stereoselective version of the Michael addition reaction can be a useful tool in organic synthesis, for instance in the synthesis of natural products. 

The enantioselective 1,4-addition addition of organometaUic reagents to a,p-unsaturated carbonyl compounds, the so-called Michael reaction, provides a powerful method for the synthesis of optically active compounds by carbon-carbon bond formation [129]. Therefore, symmetrical and unsymmetrical MiniPHOS phosphines were used for in situ preparation of copper-catalysts, and employed in an optimization study on Cu(I)-catalyzed Michael reactions of di-ethylzinc to a, -unsaturated ketones (Scheme 31) [29,30]. In most cases, complete conversion and good enantioselectivity were obtained and no 1,2-addition product was detected, showing complete regioselectivity. Of interest, the enantioselectivity observed using Cu(I) directly in place of Cu(II) allowed enhanced enantioselectivity, implying that the chiral environment of the Cu(I) complex produced by in situ reduction of Cu(II) may be less selective than the one with preformed Cu(I). 

An enantioselective Michael addition reaction was also accomplished in an inclusion complex with a chiral host compound. Treatment of a 1 1 complex of 10c and 66b with 2-mercaptopyridine (137) in the solid state gave (+)-138 of 80% ee in 51% yield. By a similar method, 3-methyl-3-buten-2-one (139) gave (+)-140 of 49% ee in 76% yield [30]. 

On the other hand, the enantioselective 1,4-addition of carbanions such as enolates to linear enones is an interesting challenge, since relatively few efficient methods exist for these transformations. The Michael reaction of p-dicarbonyl compounds with a,p-unsaturated ketones can be catalysed by a number of transition-metal compounds. The asymmetric version of this reaction has been performed using chiral diol, diamine, and diphosphine ligands. In the past few years, bidentate and polydentate thioethers have begun to be considered as chiral ligands for this reaction. As an example, Christoffers et al. have developed the synthesis of several S/O-bidentate and S/O/S-tridentate thioether... 

In a recently published report by MacMillan s group [121] on the enantioselective synthesis of pyrroloindoline and furanoindoline natural products such as (-)-flustramine B 2-219 [122], enantiopure amines 2-215 were used as organocatalysts to promote a domino Michael addition/cyclization sequence (Scheme 2.51). As substrates, the substituted tryptamine 2-214 and a, 3-unsaturated aldehydes were used. Reaction of 2-214 and acrolein in the presence of 2-215 probably leads to the intermediate 2-216, which cyclizes to give the pyrroloindole moiety 2-217 with subsequent hydrolysis of the enamine moiety and reconstitution of the imidazolid-inone catalyst. After reduction of the aldehyde functionality in 2-217 with NaBH4 the flustramine precursor 2-218 was isolated in very good 90 % ee and 78 % yield. 

A short enantioselective synthesis of (-)-(R,R)-pyrenophorin, a naturally occurring anti-fun-gal 16-membered macrolide dilactone, is prepared from (S)-5-nitropentan-2-ol via the Michael addition and Nef reaction (Scheme 4.23).162 The choice of base is important to get the E-alkene in the Michael addition, for other bases give a mixture of E and Z-alkenes. The requisite chiral (S)-5-nitropentan-2-ol is prepared by enantioselective reduction of 5-nitropentan-2-one with baker s yeast.163... 

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