Enantioselective reactions, definition

Until recently organic photochemistry has only partially focused on stereoselective synthesis, one of the major challenges and research areas in modern organic synthesis. This situation has dramatically changed in the last decade and highly chemo-, regio-, diastereo- as well as enantioselective reactions have been developed. Chemists all over the world became aware of the fascinating synthetic opportunities of electronically excited molecules and definitely this will lead to a new period of prosperity. Photochemical reactions can be performed at low temperatures, in the solid or liquid state or under gas-phase conditions, with spin-selective direct excitation or sensitization, and even multi-photon processes start to enter the synthetic scenery. 

By definition, enantioselective reactions are transformations in which a prochiral substrate is converted into a chiral product such that one of the two enantiomers is formed in significant excess. The degree of enantioselectivity is given by the enantiomeric excess (ee). Schematically, such a transformation is depicted in Scheme 1, with the triangle (substrate S) representing a prochiral unit and the two tetrahedrons (products P and ent-P) representing two enantiomeric chiral products. 

B uilding on the original proposal by Yates, the mechanism of this reaction is believed to involve the formation of copper carbenoids as intermediates, Scheme 1. Beyond the fact that copper, its ligands, the carbenoid fragment, and alkene are involved in the stereochemistry-determining event, as evidenced by Noyori et al. (2) and later by Moser (11, 12), little definitive mechanistic information has been acquired for this process. The basics of the mechanism will be discussed in this section. In subsequent sections detailing enantioselective variants, specific factors that have added to the understanding of this reaction will be addressed as will the models used to rationalize the observed stereochemistry. 

On the other hand, selective, usually applied to a synthesis, means that of all the possible isomers only one isomer is obtained. However, if the reaction product was/is a mixture of isomers one could speak then of the "degree of selectivity". Since usually one of the isomers will be the predominant isomer, we may say that the reaction (or the synthesis) is selective with respect to this particular isomer. As in the case of "specificity", we may refer to "regioselectivity" or to "stereoselectivity" (either diastereoselectivity or enantioselectivity) and may say, for instance, that a synthesis is 80% diastereoselective. According to the most updated terminology "diastereomers" are all the "stereoisomers" that are not "enantiomers", so geometrical isomers are also included in such a definition. 

The [3-hydroxy amines are a class of compounds falling within the generic definition of Eq. 6A.6. When the alcohol is secondary, the possibility for kinetic resolution exists if the Ti-tartrate complex is capable of catalyzing the enantioselective oxidation of the amine to an amine oxide (or other oxidation product). The use of the standard asymmetric epoxidation complex (i.e., T2(tartrate)2) to achieve such an enantioselective oxidation was unsuccessful. However, modification of the complex so that the stoichiometry lies between Ti2 (tartrate) j and Ti2(tartrate)1 5 leads to very successful kinetic resolutions of [3-hydroxyamines. A representative example is shown in Eq. 6A.11 [141b,c]. The oxidation and kinetic resolution of more than 20 secondary [3-hydroxyamines [141,145a] provides an indication of the scope of the reaction and of some... 

As an example of the use of SC-CO2 in an enzymatic reaction, the lipase-catalyzed esterification of oleic acid with racemic ( )-citronellol should be mentioned. At 31 °C and 8.4 MPa, the (—)-(5)-ester is formed enantioselectively in SC-CO2 with an optical purity of nearly 100% [924]. The reaction rate is enhanced by increasing pressure, i.e. by increasing the solvation capability or solvent polarity of SC-CO2. A linear correlation has been found between reaction rate and the solvatoehromie solvent polarity parameter 1(30) see Section 7.4 for the definition of t(30). 

The enantioselectivity associated with quaternary allylation is connected with scenario 5 above (one of the five points associated in the catalytic cycles shown by Schemes 12.10a and b where chirality could be induced), which is where enantioselection of one of two faces of the nucleophile (the enolate ion) occurs. Theoretical studies of the transformation using the PHOX ligand have shown support for an inner sphere mechanism, where nucleophilic attack of the enolate onto the rf-allyl ligand occurs from the Pd-bound enolate and not from an external nucleophile.74 These studies have not been able to definitively determine the step that defines the enantioselectivity of the reaction, and it is not clear how these results would carry over to reactions involving the Trost ligands. At this time, selection of which ligand one should use not only to induce enantioselectivity but also to predict the sense of absolute configuration of any asymmetric Tsuji-Trost allylation is mostly based on empirical results. Work continues on this... 

Recently, the stereochemical definitions of the addition of carbenes to C-C double bonds have been summarized. The term stereoselectivity refers to the degree of selectivity for the formation of cyclopropane products having endo vs. exo or, alternatively, syn vs. anti orientation of the substituents in the carbene species relative to substituents in the alkene substrate. The term stereospecificity refers to the stereochemistry of vicinal cyclopropane substituents originating as double-bond substituents in the starting alkene, i.e. a cyclopropane-forming reaction is stereospecific if the cisjtrans relationship of the double-bond substituents is retained in the cyclopropane product. Diastereofacial selectivity refers to the face of the alkene to which addition occurs relative to other substituents in the alkene substrate. Finally, enantioselectivity refers to the formation of a specific enantiomer of the cyclopropane product. 

We then achieved the enantioselective synthesis of (IS, 3S,lR)-96 as shown in Figure 4.47,82 Evans chiral auxiliary was attached to acid A, giving B. Methylation of B and subsequent hydrolysis of the product afforded C. Acid C was converted to D. Then, intramolecular Diels-Alder reaction of D furnished E. Methylenation of E with Tebbe reagent yielded the desired (15 ,35, 7/ )-96.82 It was shown definitely that only ( S,3S,lR)-96 is bioactive, while other isomers are inactive.83 It must be added that a-himachalene obtained from Himalayan deodar Cedrus deodara possesses the opposite 1 R,1S configuration. Insects and plants sometimes produce similar compounds with different absolute configuration. 

Experiments described by Corey constitute a noteworthy example of double asymmetric induction where neither participant in the reaction is chiral [95] As illustrated in Figure 4.18 two different catalysts are necessary to achieve the best results. Control experiments indicated that the nucleophile is probably free cyanide, introduced by hydrolysis of the trimethylsilylcyanide by adventitious water, and continuously regenerated by silylation of the alkoxide product. Note that the 82.5% enantioselectivity in the presence of the magnesium complex shown in Figure 4.18a is improved to 97% upon addition of the bisoxazoline illustrated Figure 4.18b as a cocatalyst. Note also that the bisoxazoline 4.18b alone affords almost no enantioselectivity, and that the enantioselectivity is much less when the enantiomer of the bisoxazoline (Figure 4.18b) when used as the cocatalyst. Thus 4.18a and 4.18b constitute a matched pair of co-catalysts and 4.18a and ent-A. %h are a mismatched pair (see Chapter 1 for definitions). The proposed transition structure... 

In the Novozym 435 catalysed ring-opening of a (chiral) substituted lacton, both acylation and deacylation can be enantioselective. For example, it is well known that CALB shows pronounced selectivity for / -secondary alcohols in the deacylation step. Since the forward and backward reaction exhibits by definition the same selectivity, esters comprising a substituent at the alcohol side are expected to show pronounced / -selectivity in the acylation step. " This is indeed observed for 7-MeHL, 8-MeOL and 12-MeDDL (Table 1). However, the selectivity for acyl donor in the case of PBL, 5-MeVL and 6-MeCL -lactones in which the ester bond is exclusively in a cisoid conformation- is low or for the S-enantiomer. We can speculate that lactones in a cisoid conformation must attain a different orientation in the active site in order to be activated. ... 

The final definition concerns formation of enantiomers, and the terms enantioselective and enantiospecific are used. If a reaction produces an unequal mixture of enantiomers it is enantioselective. If it generates only one enantiomer of two possibilities, it is enantiospecific. The baker s yeast reduction (see sec. 4.10.F) of 134 gave 135 with >99% ee (S). (Here % ee means percent of enantiomeric excess.) A 0% ee means a 50 50 mixture (racemic mixture), 50% ee means a 75 25 mixture and 90% ee means a 95 5 mixture. The predominance of the (S) enantiomer makes this reaction highly enantioselective. 

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