Stereoselective hydroformylation

A new chiral auxiliary based on a camphor-derived 8-lactol has been developed for the stereoselective alkylation of glycine enolate in order to give enantiomerically pure a-amino acid derivatives. As a key step for the synthesis of this useful auxiliary has served the rc-selective hydroformylation of a homoallylic alcohol employing the rhodium(I)/XANTPHOS catalyst (Scheme 11) [56]. 

Although significant progress in the field of asymmetric hydroformylation has been made, it is limited to a rather narrow substrate scope. An alternative approach to a stereoselective hydroformylation might employ substrate control of a chiral alkenic starting material. Of particular use... 

The hydroformylation reaction ( oxo reaction ) of alkenes with hydrogen and carbon monoxide is established as an important industrial tool for the production of aldehydes ( oxo aldehydes ) and products derived there from [1-6]. This method also leads to synthetically useful aldehydes and more recently is widely applied in the synthesis of more complex target molecules [7-15,17], including stereoselective and asymmetric syntheses [18-22]. 

Very recently the tandem hydroformylation/acetalization has been used for the synthesis of new synthetically valuable chiral auxiliary derived from camphor. Stereoselective allylation of camphor and subsequent terminal hydroformylation of the resulting homoallylic alcohol affords the 5-lactol auxiliary (camTHP OH) in multigram scale (Scheme 8) [41]. 

Scheme 6.26. Construction of polyketide building blocks by sequential directed stereoselective hydroformylation and directed cuprate addition with the aid of the reagent-directing o-DPPB group. (o-DPPB = ortho-diphenylbenzoylphosphanyl, DME = dimethoxyethane)...

I 5 Stereoselective Rhodium(l)-Catalyzed Hydroformylation and Silylformylation Reactions... 

The approach to polyketide synthesis described in Scheme 5.2 requires the relatively nontrivial synthesis of acid-sensitive enol acetals 1. An alternative can be envisioned wherein hemiacetals derived from homoallylic alcohols and aldehydes undergo dia-stereoselective oxymercuration. Transmetallation to rhodium could then intercept the hydroformylation pathway and lead to formylation to produce aldehydes 2. This proposal has been reduced to practice as shown in Scheme 5.6. For example, Yb(OTf)3-cata-lyzed oxymercuration of the illustrated homoallyhc alcohol provided organomercurial 14 [6]. Rhodium(l)-catalyzed hydroformylation of 14 proved successful, giving aldehyde 15, but was highly dependent on the use of exactly 0.5 equiv of DABCO as an additive [7]. Several other amines and diamines were examined with variation of the stoichiometry and none proved nearly as effective in promoting the reaction. This remarkable effect has been ascribed to the facilitation of transmetallation by formation of a 2 1 R-HgCl DABCO complex and the unique properties of DABCO when both amines are complexed/protonated. 

Ojima and coworkers have developed a similar approach to the synthesis of piperidine and related ring systems, which they describe as cyclohydrocarbonylation. In this approach, carbamate-protected allylglydnes (for example, 32) are subjected to rho-dium(I)-catalyzed hydroformylation in an alcohol solvent (Scheme 5.13) [17]. 6-Alkoxy-pipecolates 33 are isolated in good yield and were shown to be amenable to further stereoselective transformations. This methodology has recently been expanded to include fully intramolecular variants that can form two rings in a single reaction. Thus, alkenes 34 are subjected to the cyclohydrocarbonylation conditions to provide azabicy-clo[4.4.0]aUcane amino acids 35 which can serve as conformationaUy restricted dipeptide surrogates and /9-turn mimetics [18]. 

I 5 Stereoselective Rhodium i)-Catatfzed HydroformYlation and SilylformYlation Reactions... 

In the hydroformylation of optically active alkenes, all aldehydes were shown to be formed with predominant retention of configuration.53,54 This was interpreted to prove, in accordance with the transformation of deuterium labeled alkenes,55 56 that stereoselective hydrogen shifts of the coordinated olefins occur without dissociation of the isomeric alkenes.30... 

Fig. 9. Transition states determining regio- and stereoselectivity in asymmetric hydroformylation of (Z)-2-hexene using Rh/(—)-DIOP...

An example is the rhodium catalyzed hydroformylation reaction, which is an industrially important homogenous catalytic process [3]. In contrast, it is amazing that such an important transition-metal catalyzed C/C bond-forming process has been employed only rarely in organic synthesis [4]. Part of the reason stems from the difficulty in controlling stereoselectivity. Even though some recently developed chiral rhodium catalysts allow for enantio- and diastereoselective hydroformylation of certain specific classes of alkenes [5, 6], only little is known about the diastereoselective hydroformylation of acyclic olefins [7, 8]. 

Support for the role of the o-DPPB substituent as a catalyst-directing group was provided in a control experiment with the benzoate 7. Thus, exchanging the phosphorus of the o-DPPB group with a CH moiety, itself not able to coordinate to the catalytically active rhodium center, caused a complete loss of stereoselectivity in the hydroformylation reaction [10]. 

Towards this goal, the potential of the o-DPPB group to control diastereoselectivity in a carbon carbon bond forming reaction, following the hydroformylation step was explored [IS]. Enoates 17, were chosen as the test substrates since the stereoselective 1,4-addition of a methyl would provide a structural building block found in biologically important natural products of the polyketide class (e.g. antitumor agent dictyostatin 1 and the ionophore calci-mycin). 

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