Homochiral nucleophiles

Homochiral nucleophiles such as (15) give a pure stereoisomer in high yield when reacted with ethylene oxide in the presence of BF3.Et20.35... 

In view of the successful preparation of so many homochiral sulfoxides via the reaction of nucleophilic species with sulfinate ester 19, it appears likely that the reaction is capable of extension to provide still more examples of potentially useful sulfoxides. 

An optically active sulfoxide may often be transformed into another optically active sulfoxide without racemization. This is often accomplished by formation of a new bond to the a-carbon atom, e.g. to the methyl carbon of methyl p-tolyl sulfoxide. To accomplish this, an a-metallated carbanion is first formed at low temperature after which this species may be treated with a large variety of electrophiles to give a structurally modified sulfoxide. Alternatively, nucleophilic reagents may be added to a homochiral vinylic sulfoxide. Structurally more complex compounds formed in these ways may be further modified in subsequent steps. Such transformations are the basis of many asymmetric syntheses and are discussed in the chapter by Posner and in earlier reviews7-11. 

Addition of Lithiated Sulfoxides and Sulfones Nucleophilic addition of lithiated methylaryl sulfoxides (384) to nitrones of various structures proceeds easily and in good yields (622). The reactions are applied to the synthesis of optically active a-substituted and a,a-disubstituted hydroxylamines, to secondary amines (623), and to enantioselective syntheses of alkaloids (624). The preferred approach to (+ )-euphococcinine is based on the use of homochiral 3-sullinyl nitrones (385) (Scheme 2.167). 

Scheme 3-56 shows an example of the generation of chiral amines via nucleophilic attack onto an imine substrate in the presence of an external homochiral auxiliary. Moderate ee can be obtained from 161-induced reactions, and moderate to high ee can be expected from 162-induced reactions. For instance, when 161 (R1 = Et, R2 = t-Bu) is involved in the reaction, nucleophilic attack of RLi (R = Me, -Bu. and vinyl) on imine 163 gives product 164 with 81-92%... 

Both diastereoisomers of -homothreonine derivatives (109) and their 2-deuteriated analogues have been synthesized by 1,4-addition of homochiral lithium amides (107) as nitrogen nucleophiles to y-alkoxyenoates (108) (Scheme 13). The product distribution of the 1,4-addition depends strongly on the nature of the substrate (110) vs... 

The RLi homochiral ligand complexes are seldom used for the base-promoted isomerization of oxiranes into allylic alcohols because their poor chemoselectivity lead to complex mixtures of products. As examples, the treatment of cyclohexene oxide by a 1 1 i-BuLi/(—)-sparteine mixture in ether at low temperature provides a mixture of three different products arising respectively from -deprotonation (75), a-deprotonation (76) and nucleophilic addition (77) (Scheme 32) . When exposed to similar conditions, the disubstituted cyclooctene oxide 78 affords a nearly 1 1 mixture of a- and -deprotonation products (79 and 80) with moderate ee (Scheme 32, entry 1). Further studies have demonstrated that the a//3 ratio depends strongly on the type of ligand used (Scheme 32, entry 1 vs. entry 2) . ... 

The first significant advance in the field of enantioselective nucleophilic opening of oxiranes was achieved in 1996 by using an organolithium/homochiral ether combination in the presence of BF3. Several organolithium reagents have been employed to give the... 

Since early investigations about the asymmetric addition of diethyl sodiomalonate to optically active vinylic sulfoxides,100-101 Posner and his coworkers102-117 have developed a highly useful methodology based on the conjugate addition of carbon nucleophiles to homochiral a-arylsulfinyl-a,(J-unsaturated carbonyl compounds. While acyclic derivatives still lead only to moderate results,103 the strength of this method is for cyclic systems. For example, the 2-sulfinyl-2-cycloalkenones (94) and (95), the 2-sulfinyl-2-alkenolides (96) and (97), as well as their respective enantiomers are excellent substrates. All these compounds are quite readily accessible in enantiomeric purities of >98% and are configurationally stable, at least for several months at 0 C. 

While sluggish under thermal conditions,274-275 the asymmetric conjugate addition of amines to alkyl crotonates is achieved at room temperature under high pressure (15 kbar).276 Thus, benzylamine can be added to the crotonate derived from 8-p-naphthyl menthol, with virtually complete diastereoselectivity. A related intramolecular 1,4-addition of an amine to a chiral enoate was used in a total synthesis of the alkaloid (-)-tylophorine.277 Additions of amines to chiral iron complexes of type (116) proceed with excellent selectivity and allow the preparation of homochiral p-lactams.l27128,l3() l32 In contrast, the addition of amine nucleophiles to chiral vinylic sulfoxides278-2811 and to chiral vinylsulfoximines281 proceeds with comparably low selectivities. 

The dilithio derivative of 1,4-bisphenylsufonylbutane 61 was formed prior to the introduction of homochiral acylsilane 56 into the reaction mixture. The nucleophilic carbonyl addition/Brook rearrangement/elimination sequence delivered bis (fi)-vinyl silyl ether 64 in high yield and with very high selectivity through the putative intermediates 62 and 63. This short and effective synthesis of 55, this time made as the major isomer, was then completed as described above for 54. 

Almost all acyclic chloro-, bromo-, and iodosilanes react with almost all nucleophiles by the Siq2-Si mechanism which leads to inversion of configuration at silicon. For example, the homochiral chlorosilane depicted in Equation Si 1.1 reacts with a range of nucleophiles including ethyllithium with clean inversion of configuration. 

The first issue confronted by Myers was preparation of homochiral epoxide 7, the key intermediate needed for his intended nucleophilic addition reaction to enone 6. Its synthesis began with the addition of lithium trimethylsilylacetylide to (R)-glyceraldehyde acetonide (Scheme 8.6).8 This afforded a mixture of propargylic alcohols that underwent oxidation to alkynone 10 with pyridinium dichromate (PDC). A Wittig reaction next ensued to complete installation of the enediyne unit within 11. A 3 1 level of selectivity was observed in favour of the desired olefin isomer. After selective desilylation of the more labile trimethylsilyl group from the product mixture, deacetalation with IN HC1 in tetrahydrofuran (THF) enabled both alkene components to be separated, and compound 12 isolated pure. 

This synthesis of 1 is noteworthy for its seminal demonstration of the utility of tandem electrophilic hydrazination-nucleophilic cyclisation9 for preparing functionalised homochiral cyclic a hydrazino acids.10 It highlights, yet again, the great utility of functionalised glyceraldehyde synthons for the installation of remote hydroxy stereocentres in natural product target molecules. 

The homochiral prostaglandin precursor (15,3fi)-330.1 was prepared [Scheme 4.330] by selective hydrolysis of the /weso-diacetate of cw-4-cyclopentene-13-diol 330 2 using pig liver esterase (PLE),617 whereas the enantiomer (1/ ,35)-330 3 was the product of electric eel cholinesterase (EECE) hydrolysis,618 Since enzyme-catalysed reactions are reversible, transesterification can also be used to prepare esters. In the case at hand, ciy-4-cydopentene-l,3-diol (330.4) was enan-tioselectively transesterified using pig pancreatic lipase (PPL) and trichloroethyl acetate.619 The trichloroethyl ester is used in order to influence the position of equilibrium since trichloroethanol is a better leaving group and weaker nucleophile than cyclopentenediol.620... 

The direction of addition (syn or anti) with amine nucleophiles has been tested and fonnd to be dependent on the reaction conditions. The sitnation is clearest with the homochiral cyclohexane derivative (Scheme 15). In this example, a simple Pd catalyst gives a mixture of isomers owing to competitive syn and anti addition, while the polymer-supported catalyst produces only the (usual) anti addition. ... 

The Tsuji-Trost ally lie substitution catalyzed by Pd complexes using CH-acidic nucleophiles can be performed in an ionic liquid of type 1 alone [30] as well as in a biphasic system [31]. In the latter case the use of trisulfonated triphenylphosphine (TPPTS) prevents the catalyst from leaching into the organic phase. In comparison with water as the catalyst-supporting phase, the ionic liquid system exhibits higher activity and selectivity. The enantio-selective version of the allylic substitution with dimethyl malonate can also be performed in ionic liquids with a homochiral ferrocenylphosphine as the ligand [32]. 

Disubstituted phenols such as 350 undergo PhI(OAc)2-mediated oxidation in the presence of MeOH as a nucleophile resulting in the formation of two possible cyclohexa-dienones (351 and 352) (Scheme 73). The initially formed intermediate 353 is converted to the cyclohexadienones by two plausible routes. In route A, heterolytic dissociation generates a solvated phenoxonium ion 354, which further reacts with MeOH to afford 351 and/or 352. In route B, both 351 and 352 are produced by direct attack of MeOH on the intermediate (353). In the latter case, the reaction will be strongly influenced by steric factors and a homochiral environment using chiral solvents and chiral oxidants to induce some asymmetric induction, particularly in the formation of 352. 

Nucleophilic substitution (8 2 or 8 2 ) of homochiral propargyl sulfonates wifh... 

There are several efficient methods available for the synthesis of homochiral sulfoxides [3], such as asymmetric oxidation, optical resolution (chemical or bio-catalytic) and nucleophilic substitution on chiral sulfinates (the Andersen synthesis). The asymmetric oxidation process, in particular, has received much attention recently. The first practical example of asymmetric oxidation based on a modified Sharpless epoxidation reagent was first reported by Kagan [4] and Modena [5] independently. With further improvement on the oxidant and the chiral ligand, chiral sulfoxides of >95% ee can be routinely prepared by these asymmetric oxidation methods. Nonetheless, of these methods, the Andersen synthesis [6] is still one of the most widely used and reliable synthetic route to homochiral sulfoxides. Clean inversion takes place at the stereogenic sulfur center of the sulfinate in the Andersen synthesis. Therefore, the key advantage of the Andersen approach is that the absolute configuration of the resulting sulfoxide is well defined provided the absolute stereochemistry of the sulfinate is known. 

P-Lactones (propiolactones) too are readily attacked at the carbonyl carbon, for example they are particularly easily hydrolysed, but a second mode of nucleophilic attack - Sn2 displacement of carboxylate via attack at C-4 - occurs with many nucleophiles. The example shows the use of a homochiral P-lactone, available from serine. 

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