Ligands diphosphites

Remarkably, Claver et al. showed that in a square planar rhodium carbonyl chloride complex, two bulky phosphite ligands (65) were able to coordinate in a trans orientation.214 Diphosphite ligands having a high selectivity for linear aldehyde were introduced by Bryant and co-workers. Typical examples are (67)-(70).215,216... 

Several types of chiral diphosphite ligand have been synthesized and tested in Pt-catalyzed asymmetric hydroformylation.338-341... 

The influence of steric and electronic effects of diphosphites (111) and (112) have been studied with regard to their catalytic performance on the hydroformylation of styrene catalyzed by platinum complexes. The highest chemoselectivity to aldehyde (71%) and regioselectivity to branched aldehyde (85%), with an enantiomeric excess of 86%, was obtained with the plat-inum(II)-SnCl2 catalytic system associated with ligand (25, 45)-bis(5)-(lll).340... 

Modified rhodium systems show considerable activity in the hydroformylation of styrene to the branched aldehydes. Chiral diphosphines, diphosphites, and phosphine-phosphites have been the ligands most studied. Hydroformylation experiments have often been performed in situ but the characterization of intermediates has provided an interesting contribution to coordination chemistry.179... 

The first reports on asymmetric hydroformylation using diphosphite ligands revealed no asymmetric induction. In 1992, Takaya et al. published the results of the asymmetric hydroformylation of vinyl acetate (ee = 50%) with chiral diphosphites.358... 

The first catalytic 1,4-addition of diethylzinc to 2-cyclopentenone with over 90% ee was described by Pfaltz and Escher, who used phosphite 54 with biaryl groups at the 3,3 -positions of the BINOL backbone.46 Chan and co-workers achieved high enantioselectivity in the same reaction (up to 94% ee) by using chiral copper diphosphite catalyst (R,R,R)-41 48,48a 48d Hoveyda and co-workers used ligand 46 to realize excellent enantiocontrol (97% ee) in the 1,4-additions of 2-cyclopentenones,52 which may be used in the practical asymmetric synthesis of some substituted cyclopentanes (including prostaglandins). 

Subsequently, it was shown that rhodium complexes derived from diphosphi-nites, diphosphonites, and diphosphites - as well as hybrid ligands - are similarly active and selective to diphosphines [46 i],... 

Abstract This chapter presents the latest achievements reported in the asymmetric hydroformylation of olefins. It focuses on rhodium systems containing diphosphites and phosphine-phosphite ligands, because of their significance in the subject. Particular attention is paid to the mechanistic aspects and the characterization of intermediates in the hydroformylation of vinyl arenes because these are the most important breakthroughs in the area. The chapter also presents the application of this catalytic reaction to vinyl acetate, dihydrofurans and unsaturated nitriles because of its industrial relevance. 

The first report to use diphosphite ligands in the asymmetric hydroformylation of vinyl arenes revealed no asymmetric induction [46]. An important breakthrough came in 1992 when Babin and Whiteker at Union Carbide patented the asymmetric hydroformylation of various alkenes with ee s up to 90%, using bulky diphosphites 2a-c derived from homochiral (2R, 4R)-pentane-2,4-diol (Scheme 4) [17]. Their early results showed that (a) bulky substituents are required at the ortho positions of the biphenyl moieties for good regio- and enantio-selectivity and (b) methoxy substituents in the para positions of the biphenyl moieties always produced better enantio-selectivities than those observed for the corresponding ferf-butyl-substituted analogues. 

Interestingly, the hydroformylation results obtained with ligands 2b and 2d, which have conformationally flexible axially chiral biphenyl moieties, are similar to those obtained with ligand 2m, which have conformationally rigid binaphthyl moieties. This indicates that diphosphite ligands that contain the conformationally flexible axially chiral biphenyl moieties predominantly exist as single atropoisomer in the [RhH(CO)2 (diphosphite)] complexes... 

Van Leeuwen s studies using diphosphite ligands 2 and 18 indicated that the stability and catalytic performance of the [RhH(CO)2(diphosphite)] species depends strongly on the configuration of the 2,4-pentanediol ligand backbone and the chiral biaryl phosphite moieties. Thus, for example, ligands 2b, 2d and 2m, which form well defined stable bis-equatorial (ee)... 

Fig. 4 Bis-equatorial (ee) and equatorial-axial (ea) coordination modes of diphosphite ligands in the [RhH(CO)2(diphosphite)] complexes...

Another successful family of ligands is the sugar-based furanoside ligands 4, 19-23 (Fig. 5) [21-23,43,50]. The modular construction of these ligands allows to fine tune (a) the different configurations of the carbohydrate backbone and (b) the steric and electronic properties of the diphosphite substituents. They show excellent enantioselectivity on both the S and R enantiomer of the product (up to 93%) and excellent regioselectivity (up to 98.8%) under mild conditions (Table 2). 

Over the years, several authors have developed new diphosphite ligands with binaphthyl, spiro, pyranoside, and macrocyclic backbones for asymmetric hydroformylation of vinyl arenes with low-to moderate success (ee s from 36% to 76%) [48-58]. 

---