Michael reaction chiral amine catalyzed

Yamamoto s group recently published a highly enantioselective chiral amine-catalyzed domino O-nitroso aldol/Michael reaction of 2-268 and 2-269 (Scheme 2.63) [141]. As products, the formal Diels-Alder adducts 2-271 were obtained with >98% 66, which is probably due to the selective attack of an enamine, temporarily formed from amine 2-270 and enone 2-268, onto the nitroso functionality. 

A final example, from the work of Trost (49), represents the only case in which an intramolecular Michael reaction has been catalyzed by a chiral amine. When the achiral cyclohexanone is treated with (- )-quinine and heated in toluene solution, the bicyclic ketone is formed in 83% chemical and 30% enantiomeric yield (eq. [8]). 

From the examples cited above, it is evident that a great deal of research remains to be done on the chiral-amine-catalyzed Michael reaction. All mechanistic proposals have been based solely on knowledge of the absolute configuration of the products, while kinetic data as well as steric factors have not been carefully delineated. Since the research thus far has been restricted entirely to products in which just one chiral center is formed, it is clear that there is no lack of problems to be studied. 

This same picture unfolds when we examine the use of chiral amines in base-catalyzed reactions. Although in several individual cases (91,92) such as epox-idations (84), one Michael reaction (36), and an intramolecular aldol reaction (93), amino acids (11) or polypeptides (84) are better catalysts than quinine, the range of usefulness of quinine appears to warrant the term miracle catalyst. ... 

Asymmetric Michael Reactions. Asymmetric induction has been observed in Michael-type addition reactions that are catalyzed by chiral amines. The Ai-benzyl fluoride salt of quinine has been particularly successful since the fluoride ion serves as a base and the aminium ion as a source of chirality. Drastic improvements in optical purity (1-23%) have resulted by changing from quinine to the N-benzyl fluoride salt (eq 11). ... 

Chiral amines have been transformed into chiral imines RCH=NG, which are usually in equilibrium with the tautomeric enamines. These enamines undergo asymmetric alkylations, and the best results are often obtained with ethers 1.58 or with valine derivatives 1.59 (R = i-Pr, R = tert-Bu) [169, 173,253] in the presence of bases. Enamines, lithioenamines and zinc enamines derived from imines are very potent Michael donors that often participate in highly stereoselective reactions [161, 162, 169, 173, 254, 257, 260, 262, 267], Chiral imines can suffer very selective addition reactions of organomagnesium reagents [139, 253, 254] and allyl-metals [154, 258]. They also suffer stereoselective Ti-catalyzed silylcyanation [268], Strecker reaction [266], and [2+2] or [4+2] cydoadditions [131, 256, 263], When the reaction produces an imine product, the chiral auxiliary is recovered after acidic hydrolysis. However, when an amine is obtained as the product, as is often the case from phenethylamine derivatives, the chiral residue is cleaved by hy-drogenolysis. In such cases, the chiral amine is not, strictly speaking, a chiral auxiliary. But these processes will be discussed anyway because of their importance in asymmetric synthesis. 

Reactions of the lithium etiolate of cyclohexanone with E-l-nitroalkenes in the presence of chiral lithium amides have been studied by Seebach and co workers [558], and good diastereo- and enantioselectivities are obtained in a few cases. The tin enolate of TV-propionoyloxazolidinone 6.83 undergoes diastereo- and enan-tioselective Michael reactions when coordinated to chiral amine 2.13 (R = NH-l-Np) [682] (Figure 7.59). Similar reactions show low enantiomeric excesses (5 70%) however, some Michael additions catalyzed by chiral catalysts have shown high selectivities ( 7.16). 

In this context, a wide variety of different chiral primary amines has been developed and tested in this reaction with different results (Scheme 2.8). The first example of a primary amine-catalyzed Michael reaction of ketones with nitroalkenes was reported by Cordova,who found that alanine-derived amide 20a was an excellent catalyst for this transformation. However, in this report, the reaction scope was also mainly focused on the use of cyclohexanone, with a single example of an acyclic enone (2-butanone) providing the Michael... 

In 2003, Melchiorre and Jprgensen found modest enantioselectivities in the first catalytic version of the direct enantioselective Michael addition of aldehydes to vinyl ketones catalyzed by the chiral amine (5)-2-[bis(3,5-dimethylphenyl)methyl] pyrrolidine (21) (Scheme 2.13) [34]. Further studies on the reaction carried out by different groups led to more efficient catalysts such as diphenylprolinol ethers 22a [35] and 22b [36] and imidazohdinone 23 [37] (Schane 2.13). The highest enantioselectivities reported to date (95-99% ee) have been obtained with catalyst 22b employing significantly lower catalyst loadings (1-5 mol%) than those reported with other organocatalysts (20-30 mol%)[36]. 

A similar approach was reported by Wang et al. [60] a year later, consisting of a double Michael reaction of simple oxindoles with dienones. The reaction was simply catalyzed by a cinchona-based primary amine catalyst (XIII). The reaction afforded the final spirocyclic oxindoles in good yields and excellent enantioselectivities when diaryldienones were used. The only limitation of the reaction was the need to use carbamate-protected oxindoles thus, the use of unprotected or benzylated oxindoles is ineffective for this transformation. In 2010, the same research group proposed a similar approach [61]. They performed a reaction with an oxindole derivative decorated with a ketone in position 3 of the oxindole and acyclic enones. This reaction was catalyzed by chiral primary amines, affording the final spirooxindoles in good yields and enantioselectivities. 

Chen and co-workers [72] reported an asymmetric quadruple amino catalytic domino reaction catalyzed by secondary amines. The reaction consists of a quadruple iminium-enamine-iminium-enamine cascade reaction initiated by a Michael addition of oxindole 114 to the enal and a subsequent intramolecular Michael reaction between the enamine formed in the previous step and the unsaturated oxindole to yield intermediate 116. Next, this intermediate reacts with another molecule of enal via a Michael addition of the oxindole to the enal. The sequence ends with an intramolecular aldol reaction between the preformed enamine and the aldehyde. This organocascade reaction affords highly complex spirooxindoles 118 bearing six contiguous chiral centers in excellent yields and with excellent diastereo- and enantioselectivities (Scheme 10.31). 

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