Iminium salts, acyclic chiral

J-Unsaturated oxazolines can be activated by (V-acylation and the acyl minium salts thus obtained are very reactive dienophilcs. Iminium salts of chiral oxazolines 89 and 101 react with several cyclic and acyclic dienes to give cycloaddncts with a very high diastereomeric excess24. 

While most of the iminium salts studied are cyclic, several acyclic iminium salts have also been investigated. In 1997, Armstrong and coworkers reported the use of acyclic iminium salt 83 as chiral epoxidation promoter (Fig. 27) [156, 157]. 1-Phenylcyclohexene oxide could be obtained in 100% conversion and 22% ee with stoichiometric amounts of 83. In 2002 acyclic iminium salt 84, prepared from L-prolinol, was investigated by Komatsu and coworkers, and cinnamyl alcohol was epoxidized in 70% yield and 39% ee (Fig. 27) [158]. 

Cheap and readily available L-proline has been used numerous times for the intermediate and reversible generation of chiral iminium ions from a,/ -unsaturated carbonyl compounds. For example, Yamaguchi et al. reported in 1993 that the rubidium salt of L-proline catalyzes the addition of di-iso-propyl malonate to the acyclic Michael acceptors 40a-c (Scheme 4.13), with enantiomeric excesses as high as 77% [22], With 2-cycloheptenone and 2-cyclohexenone as substrates ca 90% yield and ee of 59% and 49% were obtained. Later the enantioselectivity of this process was increased to a maximum of 88% ee in the addition of di-tert-butyl malonate to the E-pentenone 40a in the presence of 20 mol% Rb-L-prolinate and 20 mol% CsF [23], Taguchi and Kawara employed the L-proline-derived ammonium salts 41a and... 

The first enantioselective organocatalytic 1,3-dipolar cycloaddition of acyclic nitrones with acrolein and crotonal-dehyde has been reported <2000JA9874>. In particular, the reversible formation of iminium ions from a,/3-unsatu-rated aldehydes and the enantiopure imidazolidinone 535 provided ( A-4-formylisoxazolidines in high yields and ees (Equation 86). A polymer-supported version of catalyst 535 was also prepared <2004EJ0567>. The catalytic performance of various chiral pyrrolidinium salts in the cycloaddition of 1-cycloalkene-l-carboxaldehydes was also evaluated <2003EJO2782>. 

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