Metal-catalyzed asymmetric synthesis

One of the earliest and most important discoveries in metal-catalyzed asymmetric synthesis is Sharpless s Ti-catalyzed epoxidation of allylic alcohols. A mere mention of all the total syntheses that have used this technology would require a separate review article Here, we select Trost s masterful total synthesis of solamin (100, Scheme 14), for its beautiful and multiple use of Sharpless s asymmetric epoxidation.1161 Optically pure epoxy alcohol 95 is converted to both epoxy iodide 96 and diol 97 The latter two intermediates are then united to give 98, which is oxidized and converted to dihydrofuran 99 by a Ramberg-Backlund transformation. The Re catalyzed butenolide annulation that is used to afford the requisite unsaturated lactone only adds to the efficiency of this beautiful total synthesis. 

Au-Yeung TT-L, Chan S-S, Chan ASC. Partially hydrogenated 1,1 -binaphthyl as ligand scaffold in metal-catalyzed asymmetric synthesis. Adv. Synth. Catal. 2003 345 537-555. 

Starting from optically active nitriles, Botteghi and co-workers [32] have applied the cobalt-catalyzed reaction for the prepartion of optically active 2-substituted pyridines (eq. (8)). The chiral center is maintained during the alkyne-nitrile co-cyclization reaction. This reaction has recently been extended to the synthesis of bipyridyl compounds having optically active substituents [33] and provides an access to chiral ligands of potential interest in transition metal-catalyzed asymmetric synthesis. 

Glueck DS (2007) Metal-catalyzed asymmetric synthesis of P-stereogenic phosphines. Synlett 2627-2634... 

Whereas there are numerous examples of the application of the products from diastereoselective 1,3-dipolar cycloaddition reaction in synthesis [7, 8], there are only very few examples on the application of the products from metal-catalyzed asymmetric 1,3-dipolar cycloaddition reaction in the synthesis of potential target molecules. The reason for this may be due to the fact that most metal-catalyzed asymmetric 1,3-dipolar cycloaddition reaction have been carried out on model systems that have not been optimized for further derivatization. One exception of this is the synthesis of a / -lactam by Kobayashi and Kawamura [84]. The isoxazoli-dine endo-21h, which was obtained in 96% ee from the Yb(OTf)3-BINOL-catalyzed... 

The development of metal-catalyzed asymmetric 1,3-dipolar cycloaddition reactions is probably going to continue during the next decade. High level of control of the reactions of nitrones has been obtained, and for these reactions one of the next challenges is to explore new substrates that are designed for application in synthesis. The development of metal-catalyzed asymmetric reactions of the other... 

Dell C. P. Cycloaddition in Synthesis Contemporary Organic Synthesis 1997 4 87 Keywords natural products, metal catalyzed, asymmetric reactions, Ionic reactions, transannular reactions, tethered reactions, tandem reactions, benzo-qulnones, quinodimethanes, hefero-Dlels-Alder reactions... 

The use of chiral diaminocarbenes as transition metal hgands for catalyzed asymmetric synthesis is certainly an emerging field of research. They are relatively easy to prepare and they allow munerous structural modifications. Their transition metal complexes shows very usefull properties such as the thermal and air stability. Even if there is only a few reports of effective asymmetric transformations promoted by these class of catalyst, all these pioneering works open the route to the discovery of efficient new catalysts. 

Optically active epoxides are important building blocks in asymmetric synthesis of natural products and biologically active compounds. Therefore, enantio-selective epoxidation of olefins has been a subject of intensive research in the last years. The Sharpless [56] and Jacobsen [129] epoxidations are, to date, the most efficient metal-catalyzed asymmetric oxidation of olefins with broad synthetic scope. Oxidative enzymes have also been successfully utilized for the synthesis of optically active epoxides. Among the peroxidases, only CPO accepts a broad spectrum of olefinic substrates for enantioselective epoxidation (Eq. 6), as shown in Table 8. 

In the past few years, new approaches for the enantioselective synthesis of / -benzyl-y-butyrolactones appeared in the literature. Some of these approaches involve the asymmetric hydrogenation of 2-benzyl-2-butenediols (j [34]), the radical mediated rearrangement of chiral cyclopropanes (r [35]), the transition metal catalyzed asymmetric Bayer-Villiger oxidation of cyclobutanones n [36]), or the enzymatic resolution of racemic succinates (g [37]). 

The asymmetric aldol reaction is one of the most important topics in modern catalytic synthesis [54]. The products, namely />-hydroxy carbonyl compounds, have a broad range of applications and play a key role in the production of pharmaceuticals [55], Since the discovery of the catalytic asymmetric aldol reaction with enolsi-lanes by Mukaiyama et al. [56], steady improvements of the metal-catalyzed asymmetric aldol reaction have been made by many groups [57]. For this type of aldol reaction a series of chiral metal catalysts which act as Lewis acids activating the aldol acceptor have been shown to be quite efficient. It was recently shown by the Shibasaki group that the asymmetric metal-catalyzed aldol reaction can be also performed with unmodified ketones [57a], During the last few years, several new concepts have been developed which are based on use of organocatalysts [58], Enolates and unmodified ketones can be used as aldol donors. 

Major interest has been expressed in the synthesis of chiral sulfoxides since the early 1980s, when it was discovered that chiral sulfoxides are efficient chiral auxiliaries that are able to bring about important asymmetric transformations [22]. Sulfoxides are also constituents of important drugs (e.g., omeprazole (Losec , Priso-lec )) [23]. There is a plethora of routes of access to enantioenriched sulfoxides, and many involve metal-catalyzed asymmetric oxidations [24]. Examples of ruthenium metal-based syntheses of sulfoxides are scarce, presumably due to the tendency of sulfur atoms to bind irreversibly to a ruthenium center. Schenk et al. reported a dia-stereoselective oxidation of Lewis acidic Ru-coordinated thioethers with dimethyl-dioxirane (DMD) (Scheme 10.16) [25[. Coordination of the prochiral thioether to the metal is followed by diastereoselective oxygen transfer from DMD in high yield. The... 

Christoffers J, Koripelly G, Rosiak A, Roessle M. Recent advances in metal-catalyzed asymmetric conjugate additions. Synthesis 2007 1279-1300. 

Scheme 7 displays a possibility of the synthesis of chiral 2-arylpropionic acids via the oxidative tranformation of (7 )-3-aryl-l-butenes. The requisite chiral olefins may be obtained by transition metal-catalyzed asymmetric coupling between a benzylic Grignard reagent and vinyl bromide (93 % optical yield) [28] or, more attractively, asymmetric hydrovinylation of an aromatic olefin with ethylene. The asymmetric combination of styrene and ethylene, giving the adduct 25 in 95 % ee, has been performed on a 10-kg scale with a dinuclear Ni catalyst formed from ( -allyl)NiCl2 and a unique chiral dimeric aminophosphine obtainable from (/ )-myrtenal and (5)-l-phenylethylamine [7a],... 

Recently, some extensive research has been devoted to exploring a diastereo-selective and enantioselective route for the synthesis of a-hydroxyaldehydes or a-hydroxyketones because they are important building blocks for the construction of complex natural products and biologically active molecules [91]. In parallel with the transition-metal-catalyzed asymmetric nitroso-aldol reaction [92], much interest has also been expressed towards the proline-catalyzed direct asymmetric a-aminoxylation of aldehydes or ketones for the synthesis of optically active a-hydroxyladehydes and a-hydroxyketones [93]. Wang [94] and Huang [95] independently reported an L-proline-catalyzed asymmetric a-aminoxylation reaction in ionic liquids, whereby it was found tliat aldehydes and ketones could undergo... 

For the last few years, enormous success has been achieved in the asynunetric synthesis of organophosphorus compounds, primarily for phosphine ligands for transition metal-catalyzed asymmetric reactions, and many articles devoted to the synthesis of chiral organophosphorus compounds have been published. It is therefore interesting to analyze and systematize the data dedicated to asynunetric synthesis of F-chiral organophosphorus compounds that have been published over the last 5-10 years. 

The transition metal-catalyzed asymmetric intramolecular hydrosilylation has also been studied (124). Of particular interest is its application to catalytic asymmetric synthesis (125-129). For example, the reaction of 3-oxasilapenta-1,4-diene 147 catalyzed by (i )-BINAP-Rh complex gives siloxacylopentane 148 with high enantioselectivity and diastereoselectivity, which was confirmed by conversion to diol 149 via the Tamao oxidation (Scheme 69) (125,126). 

Organotransition metal reagents have been used in both catalytic and stoichiometric dearomatization reaction sequences and provide mechanistically distinct pathways to alicyclic products. Additionally, metal-catalyzed asymmetric dearomatization is an attractive strategy for enantioselective synthesis [75],... 

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