Hydrogenation, catalytic enantioselectivity, influence

The type of catalyst strongly influences the enantioselectivity of heterogeneous catalytic hydrogenations (1). In the enantioselective saturation of the C=C bond of isophorone over (-)-dihydroapovincaminic acid ethyl ester ((-)-DHVIN) modified Pd catalysts (scheme 1) the optical purity strongly depended on the type and properties of the support used (2, 3, 4). 

Brunner et al. attached chiral branches to non-chiral catalytically active sites. With the aim to influence the enantioselectivity of transition metal catalyzed reactions they synthesized several dendritically enlarged diphosphines such as 81 [101] (Fig. 29). In situ prepared catalysts from [Rh(cod)Cl]2and81 have been tested in the hydrogenation of (a)-N-acetamidocinnamic acid. After 20 hours at 20 bar H2-pressure (Rh/substrate ratio 1 50) the desired product was obtained with an enantiomer ratio of 51 49. 

The solvent employed in asymmetric catalytic reactions may also have a dramatic influence on the reaction rate as well as the enantioselectivity, possibly because the solvent molecule is also involved in the catalytic cycle. Furthermore, the reaction temperature also has a profound influence on stereoselectivity. The goal of asymmetric hydrogenation or transfer hydrogenation studies is to find an optimal condition with a combination of chiral ligand, counterion, metal, solvent, hydrogen pressure, and reaction temperature under which the reactivity and the stereoselectivity of the reaction will be jointly maximized. 

It is clear that the influence of surface geometry upon catalytic activity is extremely complex and many more studies are required before any definitive relationship between catalytic activity and metal particle size can be established. Such studies will require to take cognisance of such factors as the perturbation of surface structure due to the formation of carbidic residues, as noted by Boudart [289] and by Thomson and Webb [95], and by the modification of catalytic properties on adsorption, as noted by Izumi et al. [296—298] and by Groenewegen and Sachtler [299] in studies of the modification of nickel catalysts for enantioselective hydrogenation. Possible effects of the support, as will be discussed in Sect. 6.3, must also be taken into account. 

Enantioselective catalytic hydrogenations have also been accomplished with various substituted pyran-2-ones using ruthenium catalysts <1999JOC5768>. Hydrogenation was found to occur selectively at positions 5 and 6 with up to 97% ee. Substitution at position 3 influenced the selectivity and rendered further hydrogenation of the double bond at positions 3 and 4 much slower. 

It has been shown that the pressure of the reaction can influence enantioselectivity in asymmetric catalytic hydrogenations." " ... 

The molecular imprinting method can be used to synthesize enantioselective solid materials for asymmetric organic synthesis. The first attempt to use a metal complex with an attached chiral ligand as a template was attempted by Lemaire [52]. The Rh complex, ((15,25)-V,V -dimethyl-l,2-diphenylethane diamine)-[Rh(CgHj2)Cl]2 coordinated with optically pure l-(5)-phenylethoxide or phenylethoxide (Rh 1-phenylethanolate) (template) was polymerized in the presence of isocyanate, and the polyurea-supported Rh complex is reacted with isopropanol to extract the template from the polymer backbone. They reported the influence of molecular imprinting on catalytic performance (conversion and enantiomeric excess) for the asymmetric transfer hydrogenation (Table 22.2). The imprinted polymer exhibited higher enantioselectivity compared to a nonimprinted... 

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