Lewis acid/base catalysts, allylation

In 1997, the first truly catalytic enantioselective Mannich reactions of imines with silicon enolates using a novel zirconium catalyst was reported [9, 10]. To solve the above problems, various metal salts were first screened in achiral reactions of imines with silylated nucleophiles, and then, a chiral Lewis acid based on Zr(IV) was designed. On the other hand, as for the problem of the conformation of the imine-Lewis acid complex, utilization of a bidentate chelation was planned imines prepared from 2-aminophenol were used [(Eq. (1)]. This moiety was readily removed after reactions under oxidative conditions. Imines derived from heterocyclic aldehydes worked well in this reaction, and good to high yields and enantiomeric excesses were attained. As for aliphatic aldehydes, similarly high levels of enantiomeric excesses were also obtained by using the imines prepared from the aldehydes and 2-amino-3-methylphenol. The present Mannich reactions were applied to the synthesis of chiral (3-amino alcohols from a-alkoxy enolates and imines [11], and anti-cc-methyl-p-amino acid derivatives from propionate enolates and imines [12] via diastereo- and enantioselective processes [(Eq. (2)]. Moreover, this catalyst system can be utilized in Mannich reactions using hydrazone derivatives [13] [(Eq. (3)] as well as the aza-Diels-Alder reaction [14-16], Strecker reaction [17-19], allylation of imines [20], etc. 

Although the Sharpless catalyst was extremely useful and efficient for allylic alcohols, the results with ordinary alkenes were very poor. Therefore the search for catalysts that would be enantioselective for non-alcoholic substrates continued. In 1990, the groups of Jacobsen and Katsuki reported on the enantioselective epoxidation of simple alkenes both using catalysts based on chiral manganese salen complexes [8,9], Since then the use of chiral salen complexes has been explored in a large number of reactions, which all utilise the Lewis acid character or the capacity of oxene, nitrene, or carbene transfer of the salen complexes (for a review see [10]). 

Predominantly cis-1,4-polybutadiene is produced by coordination polymerization with mixed catalysts.187,487,488 Three catalyst systems based on titanium, cobalt, or nickel are used in industrial practice. Iodine is an inevitable component in titanium-alkylaluminum sytems to get high cis content. Numerous different technologies are used 490,491 A unique process was developed by Snamprogetti employing a (Tr-allyl)uranium halide catalyst with a Lewis acid cocatalyst.492-494 This catalyst system produces poly butadiene with 1,4-ris content up to 99%. 

Allyl boronates react very slowly with carbonyl compounds as compared to the corresponding allyldialkylboranes, due to the presence of two oxygen atoms on boron which diminish the Lewis acidity of boron. However, the activity of the allyl boronates can be enhanced by the addition of Lewis acid catalysts. There have been two complementary approaches described for the stereoselective allylation with allyl boronates, one involving the use of chiral Lewis acid, and the other involving chiral allyl boronates in conjunction with achiral Lewis acid catalyst. Several chiral fVsymmetric-based 1,2-diols 197 have been employed in combination with SnCLj as a Lewis acid and excellent level of enantioselectivity has been observed for the allylation to furnish homoallylic alcohols 198 with high ee (Equation 8) <2006AGE2426>. 

If the latter reaction proceeds through a closed transition state (e.g., 5 in Scheme 7.2), good diastereocontrol can be expected in the case of trans- and cis-CrotylSiCl3 (2b/2c) [14, 15]. Here, the anh-diastereoisomer 3b should be obtained from trans-crotyl derivative 2b, whereas the syn-isomer 3c should result from the reaction of the cis-isomer 2c (Scheme 7.2). Furthermore, this mechanism creates an opportunity for transferring the chiral information if the Lewis base employed is chiral. Provided that the Lewis base dissociates from the silicon in the intermediate 6 at a sufficient rate, it can act as a catalyst (rather than as a stoichiometric reagent). Typical Lewis bases that promote the allylation reaction are the common dipolar aprotic solvents, such as dimethylformamide (DMF) [8,12], dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO) [8, 9], and hexamethylphosphoramide (HMPA) [9, 16], in addition to other substances that possess a strongly Lewis basic oxygen, such as various formamides [17] (in a solution or on a solid support [7, 8, 18]), urea derivatives [19], and catecholates [10] (and their chiral modifications [5c], [20]). It should be noted that, upon coordination to a Lewis base, the silicon atom becomes more Lewis acidic (vide infra), which facilitates its coordination to the carbonyl in the cyclic transition state 5. 

Keywords Allylation, Allylsilanes, Allylstannanes, Carbonyl compounds, Chiral Lewis acid catalysts, Chiral Lewis base catalysts... 

The chemistry of asymmetric allylation of carbonyl compounds has further progressed since the review in Comprehensive Asymmetric Catalysis [1] and plenty of papers including reviews [2,3] on chiral catalysts for the reaction have since appeared. This chapter describes new examples of catalytic enantioselec-tive allylation of carbonyl compounds with allylmetals in the presence of a catalytic amount of chiral Lewis acid or chiral Lewis base (Scheme 1). Compounds 1-36 [4-49] shown in Fig. 1 are the chiral catalysts reported since 1998, which have been used in the asymmetric allylation or propargylation of carbonyl compounds. Chiral compounds 37-40 [50-53], which have been utilized in the stoichiometric version, are also candidates for the chiral catalyst (Fig. 2). 

Catalytic asymmetric allylations of aldehydes or ketones are roughly classified into two methods, namely, those using chiral Lewis acid catalysts and those using chiral Lewis base catalysts. The former method uses less reactive allylsilanes or allylstannanes as the allyl source. The latter method requires allyltrichlorosi-lane or more reactive allylmetals. Both processes are applicable to the reactions with substituted allylmetal compounds or propargylation. 

Practical and efficient asymmetric allylation of aldehydes is successfully promoted by Lewis acid catalysts bearing chiral auxiliaries to afford high levels of enantioselectivity.165 The effective catalysts for asymmetric allylation to benzaldehyde are shown below (Scheme j) 166-176 The catalytic asymmetric allylation of ketones has proved to be a more challenging transformation owing to the significantly low reactivity compared to aldehydes. In 2002, a catalyst based on titanium complex was developed (Equation (51)).A ... 

Nafion is another choice of polymer support for Sc-based Lewis acids. Nafion-Sc catalyst is readily prepared by treatment of Nafion with ScCb 6H2O in acetonitrile under reflux [116]. Nafion-Sc catalyst has been found to be effective in several synthetic reactions including allylation of carbonyl compounds with tetraallyltin, Diels-Alder reaction, Friedel-Crafts acylation, and imino Diels-Alder reactions. The use of Nafion-Sc in flow systems has also been tested. 

The Claisen rearrangement can be effectively catalyzed by Lewis acids, Bronsted acids, bases, Rh(I) and Pt(0) complexes as well as by silica . Several reviews were published recently in which the application of zeolites and acid-treated clays as catalysts for the Claisen rearrangement was described Thus, it was shown that the rearrangement conditions for phenolic allyl ethers can be dramatically milder if this reaction is carried out by thermolysis of a substrate immobilized on the surface of previously annealed silica gel for chromatography. For example, the thermolysis of ether 159 on silica gel (in a 159 Si02 ratio of 1 10 w/w) at 70°C gives the phenol 160 in 95% yield after 3.5 hours (equation 70). An additional example is shown in equation 71. ... 

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