Ferrocenyl selenoxides

Similar reactions were also achieved by the formation of diastereomeric optically active selenoxides as intermediates in the elimination reaction. Optically active ferrocenyl diselenide 19 was used in selenenylations of alkynes generating vinyl selenides of type 164. Oxidation of the selenides was performed with mCPBA under various reaction conditions which afforded the corresponding chiral selenoxides, which, after elimination, afforded axial chiral allenecarboxylic ester derivatives 165 in high enantioselectivities (R = Me 89% ee, R=Et 82% ee, R = C3H7 85% ee) (Scheme 47)>85 87... 

Asymmetric [2,3]sigmatropic rearrangements can proceed via optically active selenoxides. It has been shown that the Davis oxidant 158 can be used for the oxidation of selenides such as 172. The reaction product, after oxidation and rearrangement, is the allylic alcohol 173 formed with 35% ee (Scheme 50).279,282 Also Sharpless conditions (Ti(/ -PrO)4, (+)-DIPT, /-BuOOH) have been applied to this reaction and the product has been obtained in 69% ee. When, however, the phenyl selenide moiety in 172 is replaced with an or/ < -nitrophenyl selenide, the selectivity is increased to 92% ee in the allylic alcohol 173 using Sharpless conditions.296 Other selenides such as 2 -pyridyl or ferrocenyl selenides gave much lower selectivities. 

Asymmetric selenoxide elimination via a diastereomeric chiral selenoxide as a key intermediate was also achieved by Uemura and co-workers [23]. They prepared new optically active diferrocenyl diselenides from the corresponding chiral ferrocenes and used the optically active ferrocenyl group as a chiral aryl moiety since an arylselenium moiety can easily be introduced into organic molecules. 

The oxidation of the chiral ferrocenyl vinyl selenides, prepared from the optically active diferrocenyl diselenides and ethyl propiolate derivatives, with 1 molar equivalent of MCPBA under various conditions afforded the corresponding chiral selenoxides. The chiral selenoxides suffered in situ selenoxide elimination to afford the axially chiral allenecarboxyUc esters in moderate chemical yields with high enantioselectivities (Scheme 10). Typical results are shown in Table 5. The reaction temperature had a remarkable effect upon stereoselectivity and the lower temperature gave better results. The addition of molecular sieves (4 A) to the reaction system improved the stereoselectivity. Dichlo-romethane was revealed to be the solvent of choice. In other words, reaction conditions to suppress the racemization of a diastereomeric selenoxide intermediate were required. Asymmetric selenoxide elimination provides a new method for the preparation of the chiral allenecarboxyUc esters which have so far been prepared by optical resolution of the corresponding racemic acids. 

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