Methylations chiral phase-transfer

Catalytic asymmetric methylation of 6,7-dichloro-5-methoxy-2-phenyl-l-indanone with methyl chloride in 50% sodium hydroxide/toluene using M-(p-trifluoro-methylbenzyDcinchoninium bromide as chiral phase transfer catalyst produces (S)-(+)-6,7-dichloro-5-methoxy-2-methyl-2--phenyl-l-indanone in 94% ee and 95% yield. Under similar conditions, via an asymmetric modification of the Robinson annulation enqploying 1,3-dichloro-2-butene (Wichterle reagent) as a methyl vinyl ketone surrogate, 6,7 dichloro-5-methoxy 2-propyl-l-indanone is alkylated to (S)-(+)-6,7-dichloro-2-(3-chloro-2-butenyl)-2,3 dihydroxy-5-methoxy-2-propyl-l-inden-l-one in 92% ee and 99% yield. Kinetic and mechanistic studies provide evidence for an intermediate dimeric catalyst species and subsequent formation of a tight ion pair between catalyst and substrate. 

Figure 5. Variations of the chiral phase transfer methylation of indanone 5.

Chiral a-methoxy aldehydes.2 The anion of 1 undergoes 1,2-addition to bcnzaldehyde in quantitative yield. The adduct can be methylated under phase-transfer conditions and then reduced3 to give the dithioacetal 2, from which the aldehyde 3 is liberated by reaction with I2 and NaIlC03.4 The optical yield of 3 is >70%. 

Enantioselective Michael addition of glycine derivatives by means of chiral phase-transfer catalysis has been developed to synthesize various functionalized a-alkyl-a-amino acids. Corey utilized 4d as catalyst for asymmetric Michael addition of glycinate Schiff base 1 to a,(3-unsaturated carbonyl substrates with high enantioselectivity (Scheme 2.15) [35,36]. With methyl acrylate as an acceptor, the a-tert-butyl-y-methyl ester of (S)-glutamic acid can be produced, a functionalized glutamic acid... 

The salient feature of le as a chiral phase-transfer catalyst is its ability to catalyze the asymmetric alkylation of glycine methyl and ethyl ester derivatives 4 and 5 with excellent enantioselectivities. Since methyl and ethyl esters are certainly more susceptible towards nucleophilic additions than tert-butyl ester, the synthetic advantage of this process is clear, and highlighted by the facile transformation of the alkylation products (Scheme 5.3) [8],... 

In 1992, O Donnell succeeded in obtaining optically active a-methyl-a-amino acid derivatives 49 in a catalytic manner through the phase-transfer alkylation of p-chlorobenzaldehyde imine of alanine tert-butyl ester 48 with cinchonine-derived la as catalyst (see Scheme 4.16) [46]. Although the enantioselectivities are moderate, this study is the first example of preparing optically active a,a-dialkyl-a-amino acids by chiral phase-transfer catalysis. 

Asymmetric Michael additions can also be performed under phase-transfer conditions with an achiral base in the presence of a chiral quaternary ammonium salt as a phase-transfer agent. Conn and coworkers conducted the Michael addition of 2-propyl-l-indanone (13) to methyl vinyl ketone under biphasic conditions (aq 50% NaOH/toluene) using the cinchonine/cinchonidine-derived chiral phase-transfer catalysts (PTCs), 14a and 14b, as a catalyst (Scheme 9.5). However, only low to... 

A variety of methods exists for the synthesis of optically active amino acids, including asymmetric synthesis [85-93] and classic and enzymatic resolutions [94-97], However, most of these methods are not applicable to the preparation of a,a-disubstituted amino acids due to poor stereoselectivity and lower activity at the a-carbon. Attempts to resolve the racemic 2-amino-2-ethylhexanoic acid and its ester through classic resolution failed. Several approaches for the asymmetric synthesis of the amino acid were evaluated, including alkylation of 2-aminobutyric acid using a camphor-based chiral auxiliary and chiral phase-transfer catalyst. A process based on Schollkopf s asymmetric synthesis was developed (Scheme 12) [98]. Formation of piperazinone 24 through dimerization of methyl (5 )-(+)-2-aminobutyrate (25) was followed by enolization and methylation to give (35.6S)-2,5-dimethoxy-3,6-diethyl-3.6-dihydropyrazine (26) (Scheme 12). This dihydropyrazine intermediate is unstable in air and can be oxidized by oxygen to pyrazine 27, which has been isolated as a major impurity. 

A conceptually different approach to interligand asymmetric induction uses chiral phase transfer catalysts. Scheme 3.26 illustrates two examples of such a process using an A -benzylcinchonium halide catalyst. The first is an indanone methylation [150] and the second is a glycine alkylation [151]. Hughes et al. reported a detailed kinetic study of the indanone methylation which revealed a mechanism significantly more complicated than a simple phase-transfer process the reaction is 0.55 order in catalyst and 0.7 order in methyl chloride, deprotonation of the indanone occurs at the interface, and methylation of the enolate (not deprotonation) is rate-determining [150]. Nevertheless, the rationale for the... 

The salt is prepared by quaternization of (-)-ephedrine with methyl bromide. Asymmetric oxirane synthesis. Japanese chemists have reported asymmetric synthesis of 2-phenyloxirane from benzaldehyde and dimethylsulfonium methylide generated from tiimethylsulfonium iodide in 50% NaOH with the chiral phase-transfer catalyst (-)-N,N-dimethylephedrinium bromide (1). 

The enantioselective phase-transfer catalyzed Michael addition of A-(diphenyl-methylene)glycine fert-butyl ester to several Michael acceptors such as methyl acrylate, cyclohex-2-enone and ethyl vinyl ketone was initially studied by Corey et al. employing 0(9)-aUyl-Af-9-anlhraceny]melhylcinchonidimum bromide (173) (Fig. 2.24) as catalyst and cesium hydroxide as base [272]. Different studies followed this pioneering woik, presenting diverse modifications over the standard procedure such as the employment of non-ionic bases [273], variations of the nucleophile functionality [274], and using new chiral phase-transfer catalysts, the most attention paid to this latter feature. For instance, catalyst 173 was successfully employed in the enantioselective synthesis of any of the isotopomers of different natural and unnatural amino acids... 

In 2009, Shimizu and Shirakawa reported the synthesis of inherently chiral calix[4]arenes containing a quaternary ammonium moiety, which were applied as chiral phase-transfer organocatalysts for Michael addition reactions. The Michael products derived from the addition of benzylmalonate to benzylace-tone and from the addition of a glycine derivative to methyl vinyl ketone, respectively, were isolated in almost quantitative yields, albeit with only low enantioselectivities (<6% ee). 

The use of the chiral aminoborane (24) for the asymmetric synthesis of alcohols from ketones shows promise optical yields are in the range 14—23% for the three ketones tested. Stereoselective reduction of acetophenone and isobutyl methyl ketone has been observed on addition of the chiral phase-transfer catalyst (25) (derived from L-ephedrine) to sodium borohydride and the ketone in aqueous dichloromethane. ... 

In this context, a chiral phase-transfer catalyst, the biscin-chonidinium salt PTC 2, was applied to the stereoselective introduction of a methyl group onto an active methine moiety of the key intermediate for the synthesis of (—)-aphanorphine 64 (Scheme 4.15). The required enantiomerically pure (3-keto ester 66 was prepared from commercially available... 

A typical procedure for the Michael addition catalyzed hy chiral phase-transfer catalyst. To a solution of enone (O.lOg, 0.66 mmol, lequiv) and methyl malonate (2.50 mL, 20 mmol, 30equiv), catalyst Q-a (40.2 mg, 0.07 mmol, 0.11 equiv) and potassium carbonate (12.4 mg, 0.09 mmol, 0.14 equiv) were successively added. After magnetic stirring at —20°C for 43 hours, the reaction mixture was diluted with diethyl ether (20 mL). The organic layer was washed successively by aqueous HCl (0.1 N, 2x5 mL), water (5 mL), and brine (2x5 mL). The organic layer was then dried over anhydrous magnesium sulfate, filtered, and evaporated. The crude pale yeUow oil was distilled in a bulb-to-bulb apparatus (Kugelrohr distillation) to remove and recycle methyl malonate. Finally, flash... 

The stereoselectivity of the methylation of ketone enolates is determined by the structure of the substrate. Stereoselective methylation of cyclic ketone enolates has been examined in detail and current models reliably predict the stereochemical outcome (eqs 9-11). Diastereoselective methylation of acyclic ketone and ester enolates has been accomplished employing a variety of chiral auxiliaries (eq 12). Efficient catalytic enantioselective methylation of 6,7-dichloro-5-methoxy-l-indanone has been accomplished via a chiral phase-transfer catalyst (eq 13). An enantiomeric excess of 92% was observed when employing Chloromethane as the methylating agent, whereas... 

A variety of chiral phase-transfer catalysts have been developed and successfully used in asymmetric syntheses of a-amino acids [19. 23, 24]. In 1984, researchers at Merck described the methylation of indanone 74 in the presence of the quaternized cinchona salt 75 as a chiral phase-transfer catalyst (Scheme 10.12) [66]. The alkylation product 76 was isolated in 92% ee and 95 % yield and subsequently elaborated into (-H)-indacrinone (77), which had previously only been prepared by resolution techniques. 

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