Ketones, enantioselective cyanosilylation

Corey reported a catalytic enantioselective cyanosilylation of methyl ketones using combination of a chiral oxazaborolidinium and an achiral phosphine oxide, [Eq. (13.23)]. An intermolecular dual activation of a substrate by boron and TMSCN by the achiral phosphine oxide (MePh2PO) is proposed as a transition-state model (54). The same catalyst was also used for cyanosilylation of aldehydes ... 

Our proposed transition state model for this catalytic enantioselective cyanosilylation of ketone is shown as 35.30a The titanium acts as a Lewis acid to activate the substrate ketone, while the phosphine oxide acts as a Lewis base to activate TMSCN. The intramolecular transfer of the activated cyanide to the activated ketone should give the ( )-cyanohydrin in high selectivity. The successful results described above clearly demonstrate the practicality of our asymmetric catalyst for cyanosilylation of ketones. 

Deng et al. later found that dimeric cinchona alkaloids such as (DHQ AQN (8, Scheme 6.6) and (DHQD PHAL (9, Scheme 6.7) - both well known as ligands in the Sharpless asymmetric dihydroxylation and commercially available - also catalyze the highly enantioselective cyanosilylation of acetal ketones with TMSCN... 

Table 9. Enantioselective cyanosilylation of ketones using bifunctional catalyst 56...

The Lewis acid-Lewis base bifunctional catalyst 178a, prepared from Ti(Oi-Pr)4 and diol 174 (1 1), realizes highly enantioselective cyanosilylation of a variety of ketones to (R)-cyanohydrin TMS ethers (Scheme 10.241) [645]. The proposed mechanism involves Ti monocyanide complex 178b as the active catalyst this induces reaction of aldehydes with TMSCN by dual activation. Interestingly, the catalyst prepared from Gd(Oi-Pr)3 and 174 (1 2) serves for exclusive formation of (S)-cyanohy-drin TMS ethers [651]. The catalytic activity of the Gd complex is much higher than that of 178a. The results of NMR and ESI-MS analyses indicate that Gd cyanide complex 179 is the active catalyst. It has been proposed that the two Gd cyanide moieties of 179 play different roles - one activates an aldehyde as a Lewis acid and the other reacts with the aldehyde as a cyanide nucleophile. 

Fuerst, D.E. and Jacobsen, E.N. (2005) Thiourea-catalyzed enantioselective cyanosilylation of ketones. Journal of the American Chemical Society, 127, 8964-8965. 

Based on acid-base combination chemistry, Ishihara developed a catalytic enantioselective cyanosilylation of ketones by using chiral (J )-Ph2-BINOL-derived lithium phosphate, which was prepared in situ from phosphoric acid... 

Scheme 2.11 Enantioselective cyanosilylation of ketones with the use of chiral lithium(i) phosphate.

Feng developed a highly enantioselective cyanosilylation of ketones catalysed by L-phenylglycine sodium salt 54 to give the corresponding cyanohydrins (Scheme 2.34). H, and Si NMR analyses suggested the possible formation of hypervalent silicate species from the carboxylate ion of 54 and trimethylsilylcyanide. Introduction of i-PrOH greatly enhanced the reactivity without a loss of enantioselectivity. 

Scheme 7 Shibasaki s catalyst in enantioselective cyanosilylation of ketones...

Subsequently, the Feng group developed an enantioselective cyanosilylation of ketones by a catalytic double-activation catalyst system composed of chiral (J ,J )-salen 16-triethylaluminium complex and N-oxide 17 (Scheme 19.10). High catalytic turnovers (200 for aromatic ketones, 1000 for aliphatic ones) with high enantioselectivity (up to 94% enantiomeric excess for aromatic ketones, up to 90% enantiomeric excess for aliphatic ones) were achieved under mild reaction conditions. Based on the control experiments, a double-activation model was suggested (Scheme 19.10). The chiral aluminium complex performed as a Lewis acid to activate the ketone, whereas the N-oxide acted as a Lewis base to activate trimethylsilyl cyanide and form an isocyanide species. The activated nucleophile and ketone attracted and approached each other, and so the transition state was formed. The intramolecular transfer of cyanide to the carbonyl group gives the product cyanohydrin O-TMS ether. 

Table 13.24 Catalytic Enantioselective Cyanosilylation of Ketones Using Gd/Ligand 7a Complex...

Table 13.25 Catalytic Enantioselective Cyanosilylation of Ketones for the Synthesis of Triazole Antifungals...

Shibasaki and coworkers developed a bifunctional catalyst containing titanium and phosphine oxide for highly enantioselective cyanosilylation of ketones [225]. By steric and electronic tuning of the bifunctional catalyst, chiral quaternary a-hydroxynitrile derivatives were obtained with excellent enantiomeric excess (up... 

In 2004, Feng et al. reported enantioselective cyanosilylation of ketones catalyzed by chiral organoaluminum complex 56 (Scheme 40) [72, 73]. Their strategy involves the simultaneous activation of electrophiles by chiral Lewis acid 56 and of nucleophiles (TMSCN) by achiral Lewis base 57. 

Chen F-X, Zhou H, Liu X, Qin B, Feng X, Zhang G, Jiang Y (2004) Enantioselective cyanosilylation of ketones by a catalytic double-activation method with an aluminum complex and an N-oxide. Chem Eur J 10 4790-4797... 

Alaaeddine A, Roisnel T, Thomas CM, Carpentiera J-F (2008) Discrete versus in situ-generated aluminum-salen catalysts in enantioselective cyanosilylation of ketones role of achiral ligands. Adv Synth Catal 350 731-740... 

The subsequent study revealed that the chiral BLA (2b) is a potent chiral Lewis acid for enantioselective cyanosilylation of methyl ketones promoted by TMS cyanide and diphenylmethyl phosphine oxide as coreactants (to generate Ph2MeP(OTMS)(N=C as a reactive intermediate) (Scheme 1.4) [6]. The rational for the observed face selectivity can be explained by a transition state assembly in... 

Scheme 1.4 Enantioselective cyanosilylation of methyl ketones catalyzed by (2b).

The computations suggested that the enantioselectivity of the cyanosilylation arose from direct interactions between the ketone substrate and the amino-acid derived unit of the catalyst type represented by thiourea 72. On the basis of this insight, the Jacobsen group designed thiourea catalysts 73 and dipepetide thiourea catalyst 74 [67]. These optimized catalysts gave access to a broader spectrum of silylated cyanohydrins (e.g., 1-6) and proved to be more active (88-97% yield) and more enantioselective (98-98% ee) than 72 (Scheme 6.85) [242]. 

Systematic investigations of the catalyst structure-enantioselectivity profile in the Mannich reaction [72] led to significantly simplified thiourea catalyst 76 lacking both the Schiff base unit and the chiral diaminocyclohexane backbone (figure 6.14 Scheme 6.88). Yet, catalyst 76 displayed comparable catalytic activity (99% conv.) and enantioselectivity (94% ee) to the Schiff base catalyst 48 in the asymmetric Mannich reaction of N-Boc-protected aldimines (Schemes 6.49 and 6.88) [245]. This confirmed the enantioinductive function of the amino acid-thiourea side chain unit, which also appeared responsible for high enantioselectivities obtained with catalysts 72, 73, and 74, respectively, in the cyanosilylation of ketones (Schemes 6.84 and 6.85) [240, 242]. 

Cyanosilylation of methyl ketones has been carried out using diphenylmethylphos-phine oxide and trimethylsilyl cyanide, generating a phosphorus isonitrile-type species, Ph2MeP(OTMS)(N=C ), as the reactive intermediate.271 A chiral oxazaborolidinium ion catalyst renders the reaction enantioselective. 

Asymmetric cyanosilylation of ketones and aldehydes is important because the cyanohydrin product can be easily converted into optically active aminoalcohols by reduction. Moberg, Haswell and coworkers reported on a microflow version of the catalytic cyanosilylation of aldehydes using Pybox [5]/lanthanoid triflates as the catalyst for chiral induction. A T-shaped borosilicate microreactor with channel dimensions of 100 pm X 50 pm was used in this study [6]. Electroosmotic flow (EOF) was employed to pump an acetonitrile solution of phenyl-Pybox, LnCl3 and benzal-dehyde (reservoir A) and an acetonitrile solution of TMSCN (reservoir B). LuC13-catalyzed microflow reactions gave similar enantioselectivity to that observed in analogous batch reactions. However, lower enantioselectivity was observed for the YbCl3-catalyzed microflow reactions than that observed for the batch reaction (Scheme 4.5). It is possible that the oxophilic Yb binds to the silicon oxide surface of the channels. 

Lanthanide Lewis acids catalyze many of the reactions catalyzed by other Lewis acids, for example, the Mukaiyama-aldol reaction [14], Diels-Alder reactions [15], epoxide opening by TMSCN and thiols [14,10], and the cyanosilylation of aldehydes and ketones [17]. For most of these reactions, however, lanthanide Lewis acids have no advantages over other Lewis acids. The enantioselective hetero Diels-Alder reactions reported by Danishefsky et al. exploited one of the characteristic properties of lanthanides—mild Lewis acidity. This mildness enables the use of substrates unstable to common Lewis acids, for example Danishefsky s diene. It was recently reported by Shull and Koreeda that Eu(fod)3 catalyzed the allylic 1,3-transposition of methoxyace-tates (Table 7) [18]. This rearrangement did not proceed with acetates or benzoates, and seemed selective to a-alkoxyacetates. This suggested that the methoxy group could act as an additional coordination site for the Eu catalyst, and that this stabilized the complex of the Eu catalyst and the ester. The reaction proceeded even when the substrate contained an alkynyl group (entry 7), or when proximal alkenyl carbons of the allylic acetate were fully substituted (entries 10, 11 and 13). In these cases, the Pd(II) catalyzed allylic 1,3-transposition of allylic acetates was not efficient. 

Finally, carbohydrate ligands of enantioselective catalysts have been described for a limited number of reactions. Bis-phosphites of carbohydrates have been reported as ligands of efficient catalysts in enantioselective hydrogenations [182] and hydrocyanations [183], and a bifunctional dihydroglucal-based catalyst was recently found to effect asymmetric cyanosilylations of ketones [184]. Carbohydrate-derived titanocenes have been used in the enantioselective catalysis of reactions of diethyl zinc with carbonyl compounds [113]. Oxazolinones of amino sugars have been shown to be efficient catalysts in enantioselective palladium(0)-catalyzed allylation reactions of C-nucleophiles [185]. 

Soon after, the same research group found that dimeric cinchona alkaloids such as (DHQ)2AQN (125) and (DHQD)2PHAL (33) can also be used as highly enantioselective organic Lewis base catalysts for the cyanosilylation of acetal ketones (131,... 

Inoue et al. reported that a complex prepared from AlMes and peptide Schiff base 166 is available for asymmetric cyanosilylation of aldehydes (Scheme 10.239) [630]. The enantioselectivity observed is not as high, even with a stoichiometric amount of the complex (up to 71% ee). A more recent study by Snapper and Hoveyda has, however, revealed that a similar catalyst system using Al(()t-Pr) ), and peptide Schiff base 167 is quite effective in catalytic asymmetric cyanosilylation of both aromatic and aliphatic ketones (66->98%, 80-95% ee wifh 10-20 mol% of fhe catalyst) [631]. 

Zuend, S. J. Jacobsen, E. N. Cooperative Catalysis by Tertiary Amino-Thioureas Mechanism and Basis for Enantioselectivity of Ketone Cyanosilylation. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2007,129,15872-15883. 

In 2002, Snapper and Hoveyda reported a chiral peptide 15-Al(OiPr)3 complex for the cyanosilylation of ketones (Scheme 19.9). This catalyst system exhibited excellent results (67->98% peld and 80-95% enantiomeric excess) for aromatic (cyclic and acyclic) and aliphatic ketones (saturated and unsaturated). Notably, the first example of catalytic enantioselective cyanide addition to an alkynyl ketone was developed. Meanwhile, the chiral ligand 15 was recyclable, readily modifiable and easily synthesised in six steps with 75% overall yield. 

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