Hydrogen-bonding activation enones

Resolution of bicyclic enones. This optically active diol selectively forms a hydrogen-bonded insoluble complex with one enantiomer of the bicyclic enone 2, which when heated liberates ( — )-2 of 100% ee. This resolution is useful for a few... 

Addition of the thiophenolate anion to the / -carbon atom of the enone is the chirality-determining step it is, at the same time, rate-determining. The transition state is a ternary complex comprising the catalytic base in the protonated form, the thiophenolate anion, and the enone. The last is activated to nucleophilic attack by hydrogen-bonding to the catalysts / -hydroxy group. The chiral cinchona bases thus act as bifunctional catalysts. 

The dienophile may also be activated by hydrogen bonding of the carbonyl oxygen with suitable protic molecules and it has been observed that Diels-Alder reactions are accelerated when performed in protic solvents such as 2-butanol. Thus the opportunity exists for the development of an enantioselective alcohol-catalysed asymmetric Diels-Alder reaction. Indeed, Rawal and coworkers have recently discovered that the use of catalytic amounts of the enantiomerically pure diol a,a,a, a -tetraaryl-l,3-dioxolane-4,5-dimethanol (TADDOL) (8.113) in the Diels-Alder reaction of aminosilyloxydiene (8.114) with 2-substituted acroleins such as (8.24), results in the formation of the cycloadduct (8.115) with high ee. Simiharly, the strong Bronsted acid (8.116) effectively catalyses the Diels-Alder reaction of sUyloxydienes such as (8.117) with a,P-enone (8.105). ... 

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