Ketones asymmetric hydroboration

Asymmetric hydroboration.1 The key step in a synthesis of natural (+ )-hir-sutic add-C (1), based on an earlier synthesis of racemic 1, is an efficient asymmetric hydroboration of the meso-alkene 2. Reaction of 2 with (+ )-diisopinocampheyl-borane (90% ee) followed by oxidation provides the exo-alcohol 3 in 73% yield and in 92% optical purity. Ring expansion of the corresponding ketone with ethyl diazoacetate is not regioselective even in the presence of BF3 etherate or (C2H5)30+ BF4, but does afford the desired a-keto ester in the presence of SbCl5 (8, 500-501). Decarboxylation of the crude product gives (— )-4 in 90% ee after chromatography. 

Chiral ketones.3 Asymmetric hydroboration of a prochiral alkene with monoisocampheylborane followed by a second hydroboration of a nonprochiral alkene provides a chiral mixed trialkylborane. This product reacts with acetaldehyde with elimination of a-pinene to give a chiral borinic acid ester in 73-100% ee. Treatment of this intermediate with a,a-dichloromethyl methyl ether (2,120 5, 200-203) and lithium triethylcarboxide followed by oxidation results in an optically active ketone in 60-90% ee. 

The pioneering studies by Itsuno [1] and Corey [2] on the development of the asymmetric hydroboration of ketones using oxazaborolidines have made it possible to easily obtain chiral secondary alcohols with excellent optical purity [3]. Scheme 1 shows examples of Corey s (Corey-Bakshi-Shibata) CBS reduction. When oxazaborolidines 1 were used as catalysts (usually 0.01-0.1 equiv), a wide variety of ketones were reduced by borane reagents with consistently high enan-tioselectivity [2]. The sense of enantioselection was predictable. Many important biologically active compounds and functional materials have been synthesized using this versatile reaction [2-4]. 

Asymmetric hydroboration of ketones with catecholborane in the presence of 0.02-0.025 equivalents of (R,R)-8, which was prepared from LiGaH4 and 2 equivalents of 2-hydroxy-2 -mercapto-l,r-binaphthyl, afforded the corresponding alcohols in a high yield and with high enantioselectivity (Scheme 6) [46]. The solid-state structure of 8 is drawn in this scheme. The preferential interaction between soft Ga metal and soft thiolate is supposed to prevent the replacement of the chiral ligand by the alkoxide product. 

Asymmetric hydroboration 2171 of prochiral alkenes with monoisopinocampheyl-borane in the molar ratio of 1 1, followed by a second hydroboration of non-prochiral alkenes with the intermediate dialkylboranes, provides the chiral mixed trialkylbo-ranes. Treatment of these trialkylboranes with acetaldehyde results in the selective, facile elimination of the 3-pinanyl group, providing the corresponding chiral borinic acid esters with high enantiomeric purities. The reaction of these intermediates with base and dichloromethyl methyl ether provides the chiral ketones (Eq. 130)2l8>. A simple synthesis of secondary homoallylic alcohols with excellent enantiomeric purities via B-allyldiisopinocampheylborane has been also reported 219),... 

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... 

Because it is often possible to control the stereochemical orientation of substituents on a cyclic array, Baeyer-Villiger cleavages of substituted cyclic ketones have been used extensively in the stereocon-trolled syntheses of substituted carbon chains. An asymmetric synthesis of L-daunosamine intermediate (30) from a noncarbohydrate precursor employed the cyclopentenol (28), prepared in optically pure form (95% ee) from 2-methylcyclopentadiene using asymmetric hydroboration (Scheme 8). Stereoselective epoxidation, conversion to Ae ketone and regioselective Baeyer-Villiger oxidation afforded lactone (29). 

DBNE is highly enantioselective for the alkylation of aliphatic aldehydes (Table 2, entries 5-11) as well as for the alkylation of aromatic aldehydes (Table 2, entries 1—4). Most of the other types of chiral catalysts are effective only for the alkylation of aromatic aldehydes. Thus, various types of optically active aliphatic alcohols are first synthesized using DBNE (Table 2, entries 5-11). (It should be noted that the structures of aliphatic alcohols synthesized by asymmetric reduction of ketones or by asymmetric hydroboration of alkenes have been somewhat limited.)... 

If a prochiral ketone or alkene does not have any significant inbuilt structural characteristics that induce a reagent to attack one face or the other, it is still possible to achieve a high degree of facial selectivity, and so one can obtain a product of high enantiomeric purity. An example is provided by the asymmetric hydroboration of prochiral alkenes. 

Masamune and coworkers [212, 583] designed boranes 2.14 (R = H) bearing a C2 axis of symmetry for asymmetric hydroboration. In the presence of catalytic amounts of 2.14 (R = MeSOj), which behaves as a Lewis acid, boranes 2.14 (R = H) are very efficient reagents for asymmetric reductions of ketones [87], A drawback to the use of boranes 2.14 (R = H) is their poor stability. In practice, they must be generated just prior to use from a precursor 2.14 (R = OMe). 

A general synthesis of a-chiral ketones with essentially 100% ee is based on the utilization of boronic esters. These esters can be prepared by asymmetric hydroboration of prostereogenic olefins and subsequent removal of the chiral auxiliary. Two approaches to a-chiral ketone formation are known ... 

The potential utility of an asymmetric addition to a prochiral carbonyl can be seen by considering how one might prepare 4-octanol (to take a structurally simple example) by asymmetric synthesis. Figure 4.16 illustrates four possible retro-synthetic disconnections. Note that of these four, two present significant challenges asymmetric hydride reduction requires discrimination between the enantiotopic faces of a nearly symmetrical ketone a), and asymmetric hydroboration-oxidation requires a perplexing array of olefin stereochemistry and regiochemical issues h). In contrast, the addition of a metal alkyl to an aldehyde offers a much more realistic prospect (c) or (d). 

The CIO methyl was installed using a sequence of steps, which included an asymmetric hydroboration reaction. This approach was developed by Tatsuda for the synthesis of herbimycin and later followed by Panek for macbecin. Other unsuccessful approaches to this difficult region of the molecule are outlined below. To ready the material for this event, the ester 6 was reduced to the aldehyde and trimethylaluminum was added to generate alcohol 24 (Scheme 8). Oxidation to the ketone, Wittig reaction, and TBS removal with HF provided allyl alcohol 25 in... 

The treatment of arylboronic acids and esters with alkaline hydrogen peroxide to produce the corresponding phenols was first reported more than 75 years ago [324]. The oxidation of alkyl- and alkenyl- boronic acid derivatives leads to alkanols [40] and alde-hydes/ketones, respectively [85, 257, 279, 316]. With a-chiral alkylboronates, the re-action proceeds by retention of configuration (Equation 53, Figure 1.32) [359, 121]. In fact, the oxidation of boronic acids and esters is a synthetically useful process, mainly in the preparation of chiral aliphatic alcohols via asymmetric hydroboration reactions [300, 302], or from Matteson homologation chemistry [322]. Paradoxically, the... 

Another possibility for asymmetric reduction is the use of chiral complex hydrides derived from LiAlH. and chiral alcohols, e.g. N-methylephedrine (I. Jacquet, 1974), or 1,4-bis(dimethylamino)butanediol (D. Seebach, 1974). But stereoselectivities are mostly below 50%. At the present time attempts to form chiral alcohols from ketones are less successful than the asymmetric reduction of C = C double bonds via hydroboration or hydrogenation with Wilkinson type catalysts (G. Zweifel, 1963 H.B. Kagan, 1978 see p. 102f.). 

Alkenylcatecholborane 11 is a good reagent for the conjugate addition and is easily obtained by the hydroboration of an alkyne with catecholborane. One-pot asymmetric synthesis of the conjugate addition product, /9-alkenyl ketone, is possible starting from an alkyne and catecholborane without isolation of the alkenylcatecholborane [12]. 

Corey extended the utility of this catalytic hydroboration chemistry remarkably (38). Scheme 15 shows some examples of the highly en-antioselective asymmetric borane reduction of ketones. The well-designed chiral oxazaborolidines, which act as catalyst precursors, have... 

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