Imines enantioselective reduction

By analogy with the enantioselective reduction of prochiral ketones to chiral alcohols an attractive method for producing enantiomerically pure amines would be enantioselective reductive amination of a ketone via enzymatic reduction of an imine intermediate (Scheme 6.11). Unfortunately the required enzymes-amine... 

METAL-FREE REDUCTION OF IMINES ENANTIOSELECTIVE BR0NSTED ACID CATALYZED TRANSFER HYDROGENATION USING CHIRAL BINOL-PHOSPHATES AS CATALYSTS... 

Another fact is the quite impressive functional group selectivity of this method. Because of their greater reactivity imines can be reduced in the presence of ketones, although chiral Ru-complex 9 catalyzes the transfer hydrogenation of ketones. Besides this catalytic enantioselective reduction of imines others are known.8... 

A catalytic asymmetric in situ reduction of N-H imines has been achieved in a sequence in which trifluoroacetophenones, ArCOCF3, are first converted to silylimines [using LiN(SiMe3)2], and then on to give trifluoromethylated amine salts, Ar-C(CF3)-NH2.HC1, in good to excellent yield and ee.5s The intermediate N-H imines can be isolated via methanolysis of the N-Si bond, while the enantioselective reduction can be carried out using a chiral borane auxiliary. 

A hindered BINAP-phosphoric acid catalyst allows the enantioselective reduction of ketimines via transfer hydrogenation.307 Imines can be generated in situ from either aliphatic or aromatic ketones, with low catalyst loading. 

Addition of lithium bis(trimethylsilyl)amide to perfhiorinated ketones and solvolysis of the N-Si bond in methanol resulted the formation of stable, isolable N-H imine Z-E isomer mixtures along with a methanol adduct. Enantioselective reduction of these three-component mixtures with oxazaborolidine catalysts and catecholborane provided trifluoromethylated amines in 72-95% yields and 75-98% ee 267... 

Organocatalytic Enantioselective Reduction of Olefins, Ketones, and Imines... 

The organocatalytic enantioselective reduction of C=C, C=0, and C=N double bonds is a relatively young area for which many new and exciting developments can be expected in the near future. Hantzsch esters are useful organic hydrides, and a recent review has summarized the results obtained to date in organocataly-sis [27]. The case of silicon hydrides is convenient for imine or ketone reductions, as a chiral base can act as an organic catalyst. The asymmetric reductions of ketones catalyzed by oxazaborolidines and pioneered by Itsuno [28] and Corey [29] could not be included in this chapter. 

D. The use of chiral oxazaborolidines as enantioselective catalysts for the reduction of prochiral ketones, imines, and oximes, the reduction of 2-pyranones to afford chiral biaryls, the addition of diethylzinc to aldehydes, the asymmetric hydroboration, the Diels-Alder reaction, and the aldol reaction has recently been reviewed.15b d The yield and enantioselectivity of reductions using stoichiometric or catalytic amounts of the oxazaborolidine-borane complex are equal to or greater than those obtained using the free oxazaborolidine.13 The above procedure demonstrates the catalytic use of the oxazaborolidine-borane complex for the enantioselective reduction of 1-indanone. The enantiomeric purity of the crude product is 97.8%. A... 

Enantioselective reduction of ketones by boranes and an enantiomeric catalyst oxazaboro-lidine (the CBS catalyst) is known as the Corey, Bakshi and Shibata method . Both enantiomers of 2-methyl-CBS-oxazaborolidine (6.52 and 6.53) are used for the reduction of prochiral ketones, imines and oximes to produce chiral alcohols, amines and amino alcohols in excellent yields and enantiomeric excesses. 

Enantioselective Reduction of Imines. Oxazaborolidine (3) also enantioselectively reduces A-substituted ketimines to the corresponding A-substituted amine in low to moderate ee (eq 8, Table 3). In this case the enantioselectivity is the same as the reduction of ketones thus the (5)-oxazaborolidine catalyst gives (R)-amines. Oxazaborolidine (3) is reported to provide higher enantioselectivity than oxazaborolidine (6). An interesting application of this reaction is the preparation of a (a/ 5,5) diastereomerically enriched (63% de) sample of the more active atropisomers of the herbicide Metalochlor (eq 9)... 

The enantioselective reduction of a C=N double bond is an interesting alternative for the production of chiral amines by hydrogenation of enamides. Required imines or oximes can be prepared by reaction of ketones with amines or hydroxylamines. However, to date, trials to reduce these substrates with ethyl-DuPHOS catalysts gave no satisfying results. Therefore, transformation of ketones or a-keto acids into acylhydrazones and subsequent enantioselective hydrogenation has proven advantageous (eq 12, Table 5). ... 

Enantioselective Reduction of Imines and Ketoxime O-Ethers. In addition to the reduction of prochiral ketones, chiral oxazaborolidines have been employed as enantioselective reagents and catalysts for the reduction of imines (eq 11) and ketoxime O-ethers (eq 12) - to give chiral amines. It is interesting to note that the enantioselectivity for the reduction of ketoxime O-ethers is opposite that of ketones and imines. For more information, see 2-Amino-3-methyl-l,l-diphenyl-I-butanol. 

The attachment of the strongly electronegative phosphinyl (P—O) group to an imine, usually via reaction of an oxime with a chlorophosphine, also gives highly electrophilic imines which are reduced by NaBFWTHF and various modified borohydride and LAH derivatives " under mild conditions. The product A-phosphinylamines are protected forms of primary amines since removal of the phosphorus substituent is accomplished under mild acidic conditions. Entries 12 and 13 (Table 16) present representative reductions and illustrate (entry 13) that highly diastereoselective reductions of cyclic systems to axial amine derivatives are accomplished with LiBHBu s. Enantioselective reductions of A-diphenylphosphinyl imines to optically active amine derivatives have also been reported (Chapter 1,7, this volume). ... 

In addition to four component condensation, several other applications of chiral primary ferrocenylalkyl amines have been published. Thus, an asymmetric synthesis of alanine was developed (Fig. 4-3la), which forms an imine from 1-ferrocenylethyl amine and pyruvic acid, followed by catalytic reduction (Pd/C) to the amine. Cleavage of the auxiliary occurs readily by 2-mercaptoacetic acid, giving alanine in 61% ee and allowing for recycling of the chiral auxiliary from the sulfur derivative by the HgClj technique [165]. Enantioselective reduction of imines is not limited to pyruvic acid, but has recently also been applied to the imine with acetophenone, although the diastereoisomeric ferrocenylalkyl derivatives of phenylethylamine were obtained only in a ratio of about 2 1 (Fig. 4-31 b). The enantioselective addition of methyl lithium to the imine with benzaldehyde was of the same low selectivity [57]. Recycling of the chiral auxiliary was possible by treatment of the secondary amines with acetic acid/formaldehyde mixture that cleaved the phenylethylamine from the cation and substituted it for acetate. 

A related rhodium catalyzed enantioselective reductive coupling of acetylene to N arylsulfonyl imines leads to the formation of (Z) dienyl allylic amines (Scheme 1.28) [105]. The scope of the reaction is comparable to that demonstrated for the analogous iridium catalyzed process. The reaction between the acetylene and rhodium leads to the oxidative dimerization of acetylene to form a cationic rhoda cyclopentadiene that then reacts with the imine to generate the product after the protolytic cleavage and reductive elimination. 

Soon after these initial reports, the groups of Antilla [92] and You [93] indepen dently applied the chiral phosphoric acid catalysis to the enantioselective hydro genation of a imino esters. The method provides an alternative route to the enantioselective synthesis of a amino esters. Antilla and coworkers employed a new type of axially chiral phosphoric acid (9) derived from VAPOL originally developed by his research group (Scheme 3.42), whereas lg was used in You s case. In both cases, excellent enantioselectivities were achieved. You and coworkers further applied the method to the enantioselective reduction of a imino esters having an alkynyl substituent at the a position (Scheme 3.43) [94]. Both alkyne and imine moieties were reduced under transfer hydrogenation conditions with an excess amount of... 

Although this was an outstanding first example of enantioselective reductive amination that achieved the project s ee target, the final industrial process actually employed the corresponding preformed and isolated imine because ofthe advantage of reducing by one hundredth the catalyst loading compared to the reductive amination process outlined here [8]. 

Table 3. Effect of imine structure on catalyst performance for the enantioselective reduction of JV-arylimines 1 with Ir-diop iodide at 20 bar H2 and r.t. [17]...

Enantioselective Reduction of Cyclic Imines (C=N Group Endocyclic)... 

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