Hydrocyanation of Imines Strecker Reaction

Interestingly, completely different types of organocatalyst have been found to have catalytic hydrocyanation properties. Among these molecules are chiral diketo-piperazine [4, 5], a bicydic guanidine [6], and imine-containing urea and thiourea derivatives [7-13]. All these molecules contain an imino bond which seems to be beneficial for catalyzing the hydrocyanation process. Chiral N-oxides also promote the cyanosilylation of aldimines, although stoichiometric amounts of the oxides are required [14]. 

---

The catalyzed hydrocyanation of imines (Strecker reaction) has the option of employing a stable (salen)aluminum chloride or a Zr complex of 6,6 -dibromo-BINOL, with BujSnCN. It is important to derive the imines firom o-aminophenol for the present purpose. 

The asymmetric catalytic Strecker reaction is an elegant means of synthesis of optically active a-amino acids. The Jacobsen group developed optimized organocata-lysts [21, 44-48], optically active urea or thiourea derivatives, which were found to be the most efficient type of catalyst yet for asymmetric hydrocyanation of imines (see also Section 5.1 on the hydrocyanation of imines). Because of its high efficiency, Jacobsen hydrocyanation technology has already been used commercially at Rodia ChiRex [49]. The concept of the reaction is shown in Scheme 14.7. In the presence of a catalytic amount (2 mol%) of the readily available organocatalyst... 

Since the pioneering work by Ojima et al. [653] the Strecker-type reaction of imines bearing a chiral auxihary with TMSCN has frequently been used for asymmetric synthesis of a-aminonitriles [654]. In recent years catalytic asymmetric hydrocyanation of imines with TMSCN has been intensively studied to establish a more efficient route to optically active a-aminonitriles [655]. 

New catalyst design further highlights the utility of the scaffold and functional moieties of the Cinchona alkaloids. his-Cinchona alkaloid derivative 43 was developed by Corey [49] for enantioselective dihydroxylation of olefins with OsO. The catalyst was later employed in the Strecker hydrocyanation of iV-allyl aldimines. The mechanistic logic behind the catalyst for the Strecker reaction presents a chiral ammonium salt of the catalyst 43 (in the presence of a conjugate acid) that would stabilize the aldimine already activated via hydrogen-bonding to the protonated quinuclidine moiety. Nucleophilic attack by cyanide ion to the imine would give an a-amino nitrile product (Scheme 10). 

Recently, Kunz et al. reported a new organocatalyst for the asymmetric Strecker reaction [132]. The paracyclophane-derived imine catalyst (280) promotes the hydrocyanation of various imines, both aromatic and aliphatic (Scheme 79). 

The Strecker reaction [1] starting from an aldehyde, ammonia, and a cyanide source is an efficient method for the preparation of a-amino acids. A popular version for asymmetric purposes is based on the use of preformed imines 1 and a subsequent nucleophilic addition of HCN or TMSCN in the presence of a chiral catalyst [2], Besides asymmetric cyanations catalyzed by metal-complexes [3], several methods based on the use of organocatalysts have been developed [4-14]. The general organocatalytic asymmetric hydrocyanation reaction for the synthesis of a-amino nitriles 2 is shown in Scheme 5.1. 

The Strecker reaction is defined as the addition of HCN to the condensation product of a carbonyl and amine component to give a-amino nitriles. Lipton and coworkers reported the first highly effective catalytic asymmetric Strecker reaction, using synthetic peptide 43, a modification of Inoue s catalyst (38), which was determined to be inactive for the Strecker reactions of aldimines (see Scheme 6.5) [62], Catalyst 43 provided chiral a-amino nitrile products for a number of N-benzhydryl imines (42) derived from substituted aromatic (71-97% yield 64->99% ee) and aliphatic (80-81% yield <10-17% ee) aldehydes, presumably through a similar mode of activation to that for hydrocyanations of aldehydes (Table 6.14). Electron-deficient aromatic imines were not suitable substrates for this catalyst, giving products in low optical purities (<10-32% ee). The a-amino nitrile product of benzaldehyde was converted to the corresponding a-amino acid in high yield (92%) and ee (>99%) via a one-step acid hydrolysis. 

The assymetric Strecker reaction of diverse imines, including aldimines as well as ketoimines, with HCN or TMSCN provides a direct access to various unnatural and natural amino acids in high enantiomeric excesses, using soluble or resin-linked non-metal Schiff bases the corresponding chiral catalysts are obtained and optimized by parallel combinatorial library synthesis [93]. A rather general asymmetric Strecker-type synthesis of various imines and a, 9-unsaturated derivatives is catalyzed by chiral bifunctional Lewis acid-Lewis base aluminum-containing complexes [94]. When chiral (salen)Al(III) complexes are employed for the hydrocyanation of aromatic substituted imines, excellent yields and enatio-selectivities are obtained [94]. 

Another interesting application of TADDOL derivatives 2 in organocata-lysis was reported by Rueping et in the Strecker reaction although the hydrocyanation of aldimines occurred with only modest enantioselectivities, for the first time the ability of TADDOLs to activate imines was highlighted (Scheme 24.9). 

Hydrocyanation to imines with HCN, the Strecker reaction, is one of the most direct and efficient methods for natural and unnatural a-amino acids. Asymmetric Strecker-type reaction with chiral aluminum Lewis acids has been developed. As shown in Scheme 6.48, the research group of Jacobsen reported chiral Al(salen)Cl complex (67a) as an effective asymmetric catalyst for catalytic enantioselective Strecker reaction of aromatic N-allylimines with HCN [62]. Compared to the reactions of aromatic imines, that of a-branched aliphatic imines (R = Cy and t-Bu) gave Strecker products in only moderate optical yield. Additionally, the use of TMSCN instead of HCN dramatically reduced in the enantioselectivity. 

Since there is great interest in compounds bearing quaternary stereocenters, soluble catalyst 25 was also applied to keto-imines in the presence of in situ generated HCN (Scheme 30.6) [17]. Whereas hydrocyanation adducts of N-allyl protected ketimines were prone to decompose via a retro-Strecker reaction, N-benzylated Strecker adducts 28 were obtained in mostly excellent yields and very high ee s. In general, acetophenone imines 27 were suitable substrates whereas aliphatic ketimines 27 showed a lowered optical purity. Although the benzyl protection group was necessary to obtain stable Strecker adducts 28, transformation of these adducts into amino acids was made more difficult. It could also be shown that... 

Intensive studies using NMR methods, kinetic experiments, and computational calculations were conducted to elucidate the catalytic mechanism and observed stereoinduction [22]. The data revealed that the hydrocyanation catalyzed by 33 presumably proceed over an initial amido-thiourea catalyzed proton transfer from hydrogen isocyanide to imine 32 to generate a catalyst-bound diastereomeric iminium/cyanide ion pair. Thereby, hydrogen isocyanide, as the tautomeric form of HCN, is stabilized by the thiourea moiety of 33. The stabilization degree of the formed iminium ion by the catalyst is seen as the basis for enantioselectivity. Subsequent collapse of the ion pair and bond formation between the electrophile and the cyanide ion forms the a-amino nitrile. It should be emphasized that the productive catalytic cycle with 33 does not involve a direct imine-urea binding, although this interaction was observed both kinetically and spectroscopically in the Strecker reaction catalyzed by 25 (see above) [19],... 

---