Esterification enantioselective process

The ability of enzymes to achieve the selective esterification of one enantiomer of an alcohol over the other has been exploited by coupling this process with the in situ metal-catalysed racemisation of the unreactive enantiomer. Marr and co-workers have used the rhodium and iridium NHC complexes 44 and 45 to racemise the unreacted enantiomer of substrate 7 [17]. In combination with a lipase enzyme (Novozyme 435), excellent enantioselectivities were obtained in the acetylation of alcohol 7 to give the ester product 43 (Scheme 11.11). A related dynamic kinetic resolution has been reported by Corberdn and Peris [18]. hi their chemistry, the aldehyde 46 is readily racemised and the iridium NHC catalyst 35 catalyses the reversible reduction of aldehyde 46 to give an alcohol which is acylated by an enzyme to give the ester 47 in reasonable enantiomeric excess. 

Whilst the addition of a chiral NHC to a ketene generates a chiral azolium enolate directly, a number of alternative strategies have been developed that allow asymmetric reactions to proceed via an enol or enolate intermediate. For example, Rovis and co-workers have shown that chiral azolium enolate species 225 can be generated from a,a-dihaloaldehydes 222, with enantioselective protonation and subsequent esterification generating a-chloroesters 224 in excellent ee (84-93% ee). Notably, in this process a bulky acidic phenol 223 is used as a buffer alongside an excess of an altemativephenoliccomponentto minimise productepimerisation (Scheme 12.48). An extension of this approach allows the synthesis of enantiomericaUy emiched a-chloro-amides (80% ee) [87]. 

To a much smaller extent non-enzymic processes have also been used to catalyse the stereoselective acylation of alcohols. For example, a simple tripeptide has been used, in conjunction with acetic anhydride, to convert rram-2-acctylaminocyclohexanol into the (K),(R)-Qster and recovered (S),(S)-alcohol[17]. In another, related, example a chiral amine, in the presence of molecular sieve and the appropriate acylating agent, has been used as a catalyst in the conversion of cyclohexane-1(S), 2(/ )-diol into 2(S)-benzoyloxy-cyclohexan-1 f / j-ol1 IS]. Such alternative methods have not been extensively explored, though reports by Fu, Miller, Vedejs and co-workers on enantioselective esterifications, for example of 1-phenylethanol and other substrates using /. vo-propyl anhydride and a chiral phosphine catalyst will undoubtedly attract more attention to this area1191. 

Benzylic C-H bonds undergo oxidative esterification with TBHP in the presence of tetrabutylammonium iodide as catalyst and carboxylic acids in good to excellent yields. A free radical process has been proposed. Asymmetric epoxidation of electron-poor terminal alkenes bearing different carbonyl groups has been achieved with a cinchona thiourea/TBHP system. The corresponding epoxides, containing a quaternary stereocentre, were isolated in yields up to 98% and enantioselectivity up to 99%. A direct oxidative CDC of indole with A-aryltetrahydroisoquinolines in the 0 presence of a gold catalyst and TBHP resulted in the formation of a variety of alkylated heteroarenes (Scheme 24). ... 

The enantioselective construction of chiral a-bromo carbonyl compounds has been achieved by using two main processes. The first one involves a double a-bromination esterification process of acyl chlorides 92 catalyzed by chiral alkaloid 11b, similar to reaction outlined in Scheme 4.20. When used with as brominating agent quinone 101a, esters were obtained with excellent enantioselectivities [130]. 

A practical aspect of the use of enzymes for the preparation of chiral synthons is the fact that one can use enzymes such as lipases either in hydrolytic conditions or in organic solvents, and the most suitable method is a compromise between the solubility of the compound, the efficiency of the process, and the maximum enantioselection that can be achieved. In Scheme 65 two of these cases are presented [278,244] where esterification and hydrolysis can be compared. Interestingly, an opposite configuration of products is obtained when enzymatic hydrolysis of the ester or esterification of the alcohol is carried out. 

The first point to be mentioned is that usually the structure of the alcohol moiety of the starting profen ester does not have a dramatic influence on the yield and/or the enantioselectivity in hydrolytic processes (see Table lA [83,84] or Table 2A [77,85]) on the contrary, the alcohol specificity of the lipase might be the key in the yield achieved in the esterification. This fact is shown in Tables 6B ([100,103], resolution of naproxen esters... 

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