Lewis acid-mediated radical substrates

In one of the earliest reports on enantioselective radical reactions, chiral Lewis acid mediated conjugate addition followed by enantioselective H-atom transfer a to a carbonyl was reported by Sato and co-workers (Scheme 3) [22], The single point binding chiral aluminum complex presumably coordinates to the carbonyl oxygen of the lactone as shown in 10. The strong Lewis acidity of the aluminum complex activates the substrate 7 to nucleophilic conjugate addition, which is followed by an enantioselective H-atom transfer from BuaSnH in a chiral environment provided by BINOL ligand in 8. Only 28% ee was observed for product 9. 

Free radicals are neutral species and therefore cannot normally be detected by ESI-MS. However, it is well known that radical reactions can be mediated by Lewis acids if the substrate acts as a Lewis base by chelating the metal atom of a Lewis acid in solution. Fiirmeier and coworkers studied tin hydride-mediated radical additions to dialkyl 2-alkyl-4-methyleneglutarates in the presence of Lewis acids (Scheme 5.5) [28,... 

For both modern reagents PIFA and MoCls an inner-sphere radical transfer is expected, as depicted in Scheme 7. The Lewis acidic additives involved in the PIFA-mediated transformation create an iodonium species that forms a Jt-com-plex 26 with the substrate this subsequently leads to an electron transfer. In contrast, the electrophilic molybdenum chloride most probably coordinates to the oxygen atoms of the donor functions which will then start the transformation. Smooth conversions are obtained if the substituent R" adjacent to the donor (27) is another methoxy group or a bulky moiety. 

The formation of a quaternary carbon center by the radical-mediated allylation of an a-iodolactone was examined for substrate 341 by Murakata, Jono, and Hos-hino [71]. Lewis acids for this reaction were prepared from a bis-sulfonamide and tri-methylaluminum in dichloromethane. Other aluminum compounds were employed in the preparation of the catalyst but all resulted in similar or lower asymmetric induction. The Lewis acid was complexed with the lactone and then the allylation procedure in Sch. 44 was performed. It was found that superior asymmetric induction could be achieved if the Lewis acid was prepared from the ligand with two equivalents of trimethylaluminum. It was also interesting that some turnover could be achieved, as indicated by the data obtained from use of 50 mol % catalyst. 

An example of conjugate free-radical addition to methyl acrylate mediated by a copper Lewis acid has been reported (Sch. 30) [65]. In this example the Lewis acid 127 activates the substrate for conjugate addition by the aryl radical which is followed by an enantioselective chlorine atom-transfer step. Chemical and optical yield for the transformation are both low. 

The first catalytic asymmetric radical-mediated allylation was reported in late 1997 by Hoshino and coworkers, who studied the allylation of an a-iodolac-tone substrate, Eq. (19) using trimethylaluminum as Lewis acid and a silylated binaphthol as the chiral catalyst, with triethylborane as radical initiator [62]. Use of one equiv. of diethyl ether was crucial for high enantioselectivity, providing an ee up to 91% in the presence of one equiv. of catalyst, with only a 27% ee in the absence of ether, and poorer ee s when other ethers were employed. In the catalytic version, the ee s dropped off vs. the stoichiometric reaction, with an ee of 81% with 0.5 equiv., and 80% with 0.2 equiv., and 72% with 0.1% catalyst. As in the above example, the presumed chiral intermediate involves complexation of the lactone radical with the Lewis acid-binaphthol complex, with the diethyl ether perhaps as a ligand on the aluminum. 

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