Oxazolines ligands

The use of chiral oxazolines as ligands for catalytic asymmetric synthesis is undoubtedly the most important development in oxazohne chemistry. Compared with other ligands, oxazolines offer the advantage of being easily accessible from chiral amino alcohols that are, in turn, readily available from a chiral pool of amino acids. There have been numerous reports on this exciting use of oxazolines during the last 10 years. Many of the ligands studied to date contain at least two oxazoline units. The synthesis and reactions of bis(oxazohnes) are discussed in detail in Chapter 9 the discussions in this section are limited to mononuclear oxazolines. 

Evans and co-workers investigated the effect of a number of -symmetric bis(oxazoline) ligands on the copper(II)-catalysed Diels-Alder reaction of an N-acyloxazolidinone with cyclopentadiene. Enantiomeric excesses of up to 99% have been reported (Scheme 3.4). Evans et al." suggested transition state assembly 3.7, with a square planar coordination environment around the central copper ion. In this scheme the dienophile should be coordinated predominantly in an cisoid fashion in... 

Recently Desimoni et used the same bis(oxazoline) ligand in the magnesium(II) catalysed Diels-Alder reaction of the N-acyloxazolidinone depicted in Scheme 3.4. In dichloromethane a modest preference was observed for the formation of the S-enantiomer. Interestingly, upon addition of two equivalents of water, the R-enantiomer was obtained in excess. This remarkable observation was interpreted in terms of a change from tetrahedral to octahedral coordination upon the introduction of the strongly coordinating water molecules. 

Chiral oxazolines developed by Albert I. Meyers and coworkers have been employed as activating groups and/or chiral auxiliaries in nucleophilic addition and substitution reactions that lead to the asymmetric construction of carbon-carbon bonds. For example, metalation of chiral oxazoline 1 followed by alkylation and hydrolysis affords enantioenriched carboxylic acid 2. Enantioenriched dihydronaphthalenes are produced via addition of alkyllithium reagents to 1-naphthyloxazoline 3 followed by alkylation of the resulting anion with an alkyl halide to give 4, which is subjected to reductive cleavage of the oxazoline moiety to yield aldehyde 5. Chiral oxazolines have also found numerous applications as ligands in asymmetric catalysis these applications have been recently reviewed, and are not discussed in this chapter. ... 

Since Evans s initial report, several chiral Lewis acids with copper as the central metal have been reported. Davies et al. and Ghosh et al. independently developed a bis(oxazoline) ligand prepared from aminoindanol, and applied the copper complex of this ligand to the asymmetric Diels-Alder reaction. Davies varied the link between the two oxazolines and found that cyclopropyl is the best connector (see catalyst 26), giving the cycloadduct of acryloyloxazolidinone and cyclopentadiene in high optical purity (98.4% ee) [35] (Scheme 1.45). Ghosh et al., on the other hand, obtained the same cycloadduct in 99% ee by the use of unsubstituted ligand (see catalyst 27) [36] (Scheme 1.46, Table 1.19). 

Phosphino-oxazoline)copper complex 28 was found by Helmchen et al. to be an excellent Diels-Alder catalyst [37] (Scheme 1.47, Table 1.20). The nitrogen atom acts as an electron-donating ligand, whereas phosphorus is a cr-donor-Tt-acceptor ligand. The copper complex of this phosphino-oxazoline ligand is therefore expected to have... 

Corey et al. synthesized a chiral bis(oxazoline)Fe(III) catalyst 30, the ligand of which was prepared from chiral phenylglycine. The catalyst was formed by the reaction of the ligand with Fel3 in the presence of I2.12 greatly enhances the Lewis acidity of the catalyst owing to the formation of a cationic species [39] (Scheme 1.49). 

Single crystals of 1 1 complex. °1 1 Catalyst obtained by evaporation of CH2CI2. After 3 months in an open air. Ligand (Ff,Ff)-isopropylidene-2,2 -bis(4-phenyl-oxazoline). Anhydrous complex catalyst prepared from NIBr2 and AgSbFg. 

We therefore prepared a new chiral ligand, (l ,J )-isopropylidene-2,2 -bis[4-(o-hy-droxybenzyl)oxazoline)], hereafter designated J ,J -BOX/o-HOBn. To our delight, the copper(II) complex catalyst prepared from J ,J -BOX/o-HOBn ligand and Cu(OTf)2 was quite effective (Scheme 7.45). Especially, the reaction of O-benzylhydroxylamine with l-crotonoyl-3-isopropyl-2-imidazolidinone in dichloromethane (0.15 m) at -40°C in the presence of J ,J -BOX/o-HOBn-Cu(OTf)2 (10 mol%) provided the maximum enantioselectivity of 94% ee. 

Asymmetric versions of the cyclopropanation reaction of electron-deficient olefins using chirally modified Fischer carbene complexes, prepared by exchange of CO ligands with chiral bisphosphites [21a] or phosphines [21b], have been tested. However, the asymmetric inductions are rather modest [21a] or not quantified (only the observation that the cyclopropane is optically active is reported) [21b]. Much better facial selectivities are reached in the cyclopropanation of enantiopure alkenyl oxazolines with aryl- or alkyl-substituted alkoxy-carbene complexes of chromium [22] (Scheme 5). 

Can a chiral catalyst containing the same ligand/metal components promote the formation of both enantiomers enantioselectively The bis(oxazoline)magnesium perchlorate-catalyzed asymmetric Diels-Alder reaction [103]... 

A series of chiral phosphinous amides bearing pendant oxazoline rings (50, Ri=H,Tr R2=H,Tr, 51, Ri=H,Tr R2=H,Tr and 54, Ri=H,Tr R2=H,Tr in Scheme 41) have been used as ligands in the copper-catalyzed 1,4-addition of diethylzinc to enones. Two model substrates have been investigated, the cyclic 2-cyclohexenone and the acyclic trans-chalcone. The addition products are obtained quantitatively in up to 67% ee [171]. 

Associated to copper(II) pre-catalysts, bis(oxazolines) also allowed the asymmetric Diels-Alder and hetero Diels-Alder transformations to be achieved in nearly quantitative yield and high diastereo- and enantioselectivities. Optically active sulfoximines, with their nitrogen-coordinating site located at close proximity to the stereogenic sulfur atom, have also proven their efficiency as copper ligands for these asymmetric cycloadditions. Other precursors for this Lewis acid-catalyzed transformation have been described (e.g., zinc salts, ruthenium derivatives, or rare earth complexes) which, when associated to bis(oxazolines), pyridine-oxazolines or pyridine-bis(oxazolines), led to efficient catalysts. 

Glos and Reiser [23] introduced aza-bis(oxazolines) as new chiral ligands for copper and palladium catalysts. Because of the structural flexibility of these compounds they also prepared an immobilized ligand by covalent grafting to methoxypoly(ethyleneglycol) (structures 14 and 15 in Scheme 9). 

Rhodium complexes with chelating bis(oxazoline) ligands have been described to a lesser extent for the cyclopropanation of olefins. For example, Bergman, Tilley et al. [32] have prepared a family of bis(oxazoline) complexes of coordinatively unsaturated monomeric rhodium(II) (see 20 in Scheme 13). Interestingly, the use of complex 20 in the cyclopropanation reaction of styrene afforded mainly the cis cyclopropane cis/trans = 63137), with 74% ee and not the thermodynamically favored trans isomer. No mechanistic suggestions are proposed by the authors to explain this unusual selectivity. 

In conclusion, many chiral pyridine-based ligands have been prepared from the chiral pool and have been successfully tested as ligands for the copper- or rhodium-catalyzed cyclopropanation of olefins. Alfhough efficient systems have been described, sometimes leading interestingly to the major cis isomer, the enantioselectivities usually remained lower than those obtained with the copper-bis(oxazoline) system. 

Clarke and Shannon also supported copper bis(oxazoline) complexes onto the surfaces of inorganic mesoporous materials, such as MCM-41 and MCM-48, through the covalent binding of the ligand, modified by alkoxysilane functionalities [59]. The immobilized catalysts allowed the cyclopropanation of styrene with ethyldiazoacetate to be performed as for the corresponding homogeneous case, and were reused once with almost no loss of activity or selectivity. 

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