Hydrogenation rhodium-catalysed

Although more limited in scope than the BINAP-Ru(II)-catalysed hydrogenations, rhodium-catalysed hydrogenations are of enormous commercial importance because of the demand for both natural and unnatural amino acids on a vast scale. It is even economical for the more expensive of the natural amino acids to be made synthetically rather than isolated from natural sources—phenylalanine, for example, of industrial importance as a component of the artificial sweetener aspartame, is manufactured by enantiosfelective hydrogenation. 

Laine and co-workers have studied the mechanism involved in rhodium-catalysed benzaldehyde hydrogenation, using [Rh6(CO)i6] as catalyst precursor. Following kinetic arguments, the authors proposed cluster catalysis with a limiting step corresponding to the break of metal-metal bond and/or isomerisation of the cluster formation [22]. 

In 2004, a series of other chiral thioether-phosphine ligands based on a cyclopropane backbone were evaluated in the rhodium-catalysed hydrogenation of a dehydroamino acid by Molander el al As shown in Scheme 8.2, even if these ligands were generally active, only moderate enantioselectivities of up to 47% ee were obtained. 

In general, of the mixed phosphorus-thioether ligands that have been used in the asymmetric hydrogenation of prochiral olefins, the thioether-phosphinite ligands have provided some of the best results. As an example, a new class of thioether-phosphinite ligands developed by Evans et al. has recently proved to be very efficient for the rhodium-catalysed asymmetric hydrogenation of a... 

Other S/P ligands derived from carbohydrates and depicted in Scheme 8.5 were found by Khiar et al. to be efficient catalysts for the rhodium-catalysed methyl ot-acetamidocinnamate hydrogenation, leading to protected (5)-phe-nylalanine in a quantitative yield and with an enantioselectivity of 92% ee. On the other hand, the use of 2-phosphinite tert-butyl-thioarabinoside as the ligand afforded the corresponding (2 )-isomer in 92% ee. 

In 2006, Berens et al. reported the synthesis of novel benzothiophene-based DuPHOS analogues, which gave excellent levels of enantioselectivity when applied as the ligands to the asymmetric rhodium-catalysed hydrogenation of various olefins, such as dehydroamino acid derivatives, enamides and itaco-nates (Scheme 8.10). ... 

On the other hand, Bolm et al. have reported, more recently, the use of BINOL-derived A -phosphino sulfoximines as ligands in the rhodium-catalysed hydrogenation of dimethyl itaconate and a-acetamidoacrylates, achieving excellent enantioselectivities of up to 99% ee (Scheme 8.12). In the main... 

Finally, the use of S/P ligands derived from (i )-binaphthol has been considered by Gladiali et al. in the asymmetric rhodium-catalysed hydrogen-transfer reduction of acetophenone performed in the presence of i-PrOH as the hydrogen donor.It was noted that racemisation occurred when the reaction time increased and consequently the corresponding alcohol was obtained in only low enantioselectivities (< 5% ee) as shown in Scheme 9.21. Similar results were more recently reported by these authors by using iridium combined with the same ligands. ... 

PEGs with average molecular weights above 1000 are waxy solids under ambient conditions, but they melt under C02 pressure to become liquids under typical conditions of scC02 catalysis [63], The approach was demonstrated for the rhodium catalysed hydrogenation of styrene as a test reaction using Wilkinson s complex [(PPhs RhCl] as the catalyst (Scheme 8.6) [61],... 

Scheme 8.6. Rhodium-catalysed hydrogenation in the biphasic system PEG/scCC>2...

K. Inoguchi, S. Sakuraba, K. Achiwa, Design Concept for Developing Highly Efficient Chiral Bisphosphine Ligands in Rhodium-Catalysed Asymmetric Hydrogenations, Synlett, 1992,169-178. 

Figure 4.22. Monophos as monodentate ligand in rhodium catalysed asymmetric hydrogenation...

Scheme 5 Rhodium-catalysed hydrogenation of itaconic acid (16) in an inverted biphasic system SCCO2/H2O...

Similarly, the alkyl analogues (alkyl for Ar) of 198 were prepared by Imamoto and coworkers and used as efficient catalysts for asymmetric rhodium-catalysed hydrogenation . Bulky chiral diphosphines could be constructed on the base of this enantioselective... 

Monodentate phosphoramidites, in particular (9) and its octahydro analogue, are found to be excellent ligands for the rhodium-catalysed asymmetric hydrogenation of aromatic enol acetates, enol carbamates, and 2-dienol carbamates with up to 98%... 

For the aziridination of 1,3-dienes, copper catalysis gave better yields of A-tosyl-2-alkenyl aziridines with 1,3-cyclooctadiene, 1,4-addition occurred exclusively (50%) [46]. Good results were also obtained on rhodium catalysed decomposition of PhI=NNs (Ns = p-nitrophenylsulphonyl) with some alkenes the aziridination was stereospecific, whereas with chiral catalysts asymmetric induction (up to 73% ee) was achieved. However, cyclohexene gave predominantly (70%) a product derived from nitrene insertion into an allylic carbon-hydrogen bond [47]. 

The bis(dioxolanyl)oxazolidinone 33 has been prepared from D-mannitol and evaluated as a chiral auxiliary <02MT749> and the diamine 34 has been examined as a ligand for rhodium catalysed asymmetric hydrogenation of diethyl itaconate <02JOU104>. Deracemisation of 2-benzylcyclohexanone by formation of an inclusion complex with the TADDOL compound 35 has been described and the mechanism clarified by X-ray structure determination of the complex <02T3401>. A production process for the bis(phosphine oxide) 36 has been patented <02USP6472539>. 

Chiral ionic liquids have also been used to aid enantioselective metal catalysed reactions. For example, homogeneous rhodium catalysed hydrogenations using tropoisomeric biphenylphosphine ligands have been reported using chiral ionic liquids derived from L-proline and L-valine. Enantioselectivities of up to 69% could be achieved and the catalytic system could be reused after extraction with SCCO2. 

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