Nitroaldol reaction metals

H. Sasai, T. Suzuki, S. Arai, T. Arai, M Shibasaki, Basic Character of Rare Earth Metal Alkoxides. Utilization in Catalytic C-C Bond-Forming Reactions and Catalytic Asymmetric Nitroaldol Reactions, J. Am. Chem. Soc 1992,114, 4418-4420. 

Various nitro compounds have been condensed with carbonyl compounds in reactions catalyzed by alkaline earth metal oxides and hydroxides 145). It was found that the reactivities of the nitro compounds were in the order nitro-ethane > nitromethane > 2-nitropropane, and those of carbonyl compounds were propionaldehyde > isobutyraldehyde > pivalaldehyde > acetone > benzaldehyde > methyl propionate. Among the catalysts examined, MgO, CaO, Ba(OH)2, and Sr(OH)2, exhibited high activity for nitroaldol reaction of nitromethane with propionaldehyde. In reactions with these catalysts, the yields were between 60% (for MgO) and 26% (for Sr(OH)2) at 313 K after 1 h in a batch reactor. On Mg(OH)2, Ca(OH)2, and BaO, the yields were in the range of 3.8% (for BaO) and 17.5% (for Mg(OH)2). Investigation of the influence of the pre-treatment... 

Conjugate addition of methanol to a,/l-unsaturated carbonyl compounds forms a new carbon-oxygen bond to yield valuable ethers (Scheme 26). Kabashima et al. (12) reported the conjugate addition of methanol to 3-buten-2-one on alkaline oxides, hydroxides, and carbonates at a temperature of 273 K. The activities of the catalyst follow the order alkaline earth metal oxides > alkaline earth metal hydroxides > alkaline earth metal carbonates. All alkaline earth metal oxides exhibited high catalytic activities and, as in alcohol condensations and nitroaldol reactions, their catalytic activities were not much affected by exposure to CO2 and air. 

Shibasaki et al. have reported an asymmetric nitroaldol reaction catalyzed by chiral lanthanum alkoxide 18 to produce an optically active 2-hydroxy-1-nitroalkane with moderate-to-high enantiomeric excesses (Scheme 8B1.10) [27]. Apparently this novel catalyst acts as Lewis base. The proposed reaction mechanism is shown in Scheme 8B1.11, where the first step of the reaction is the ligand exchange between binaphthol and nitromethane. This reaction is probably the first successful example of the catalytic asymmetric reaction promoted by a Lew i s base metal catalyst. Future application of this methodology is quite promising. 

In addition to this highly enantioselective metal-catalyzed approach, several orga-nocatalytic versions of the asymmetric nitroaldol reaction have recently been reported. The Najera group used enantiomerically pure guanidines with and without C2 symmetry as chiral catalysts for the addition of nitromethane to aldehydes [126], When the reaction was conducted at room temperature yS-nitro alcohols of type 120 were obtained in yields of up to 85% but enantioselectivity, 26% ee or below, was low. A selected example is given in Scheme 6.52. Higher enantioselectivity, 54% ee, can be obtained at a low reaction temperature of —65 °C, but the yield (33%) is much lower. 

Sasai, H. Suzuki, T. Arai, S. Arai, T. Shiba- 446 saki, M. Basic character of rare earth metal alkoxides. Utilization in catalytic C-C bondforming reactions and catalytic asymmetric nitroaldol reactions./. Am. Chem. Soc. 1992,... 

The lanthanoid and group 3 metals, the so-called rare earth elements, are generally regarded as a group of 17 elements with similar properties, especially with respect to their chemical reactivity. However, in the above-mentioned catalytic asymmetric nitroaldol reactions, pronounced differences were observed both in the reactivity and in the enantioselectivity of the various rare earth metals used.29 For example, when benzaldehyde (54) and nitromethane (12) were used as starting materials, the EuLB complex gave 55 in 72% ee (91% yield) compared to 37% ee (81% yield) in the case of LLB (-40 °C, 40 h). The unique relationship... 

In both catalytic, asymmetric Michael reactions and nitroaldol reactions, enones and/or aldehydes appear to coordinate to the lanthanoid metal. Why, then, is LSB more effective for catalytic, asymmetric Michael reactions, whereas LLB is more effective for catalytic, asymmetric nitroaldol reactions This disparity might arise from slight differences in bond lengths in the chelated intermediate, as well as slight differences in bite angle for the BINOL moiety caused by varying the alkali metal. 

For example, an effective procedure for the synthesis of LLB (where LL = lanthanum and lithium) is treatment of LaCls 7H2O with 2.7 mol equiv. BINOL dilithium salt, and NaO-t-Bu (0.3 mol equiv.) in THF at 50 °C for 50 h. Another efficient procedure for the preparation of LLB starts from La(0-/-Pr)3 [54], the exposure of which to 3 mol equiv. BINOL in THF is followed by addition of butyllithium (3 mol equiv.) at 0 C. It is worthy of note that heterobimetallic asymmetric complexes which include LLB are stable in organic solvents such as THF, CH2CI2 and toluene which contain small amounts of water, and are also insensitive to oxygen. These heterobimetallic complexes can, by choice of suitable rare earth and alkali metals, be used to promote a variety of efficient asymmetric reactions, for example nitroaldol, aldol, Michael, nitro-Mannich-type, hydrophosphonylation, hydrophosphination, protonation and Diels-Alder reactions. A catalytic asymmetric nitroaldol reaction, a direct catalytic asymmetric aldol reaction, and a catalytic asymmetric nitro-Mannich-type reaction are discussed in detail below. 

The basic character of lanthanide alkoxides such as Lu3(Of-Bu)9 seem to effect aldol, cyanosilylation, aldol, and Michael reactions [111]. Complexes 2 and 22, abbreviated as LnMB (Ln = lanthanide, M = alkali metal, B = BR IOL) [112] were thoroughly studied in the catalytic, asymmetric nitroaldol reaction (Henry reaction eq. (10)) [113]. 

In 1992, Shibasaki et al. reported for the time an application of chiral heterobimetallic lanthanoid complexes (LnLB) as chiral catalysts in asymmetric catalysis, namely the catalytic asymmetric nitroaldol reaction (Henry reaction), which is one of the most classical C-C bond forming processes [11]. Additionally, this work represents the first enantioselective synthesis of (3-nitroalcohol compounds by the way of enantioselective addition of nitroalkanes to aldehydes in the presence of a chiral catalyst. The chiral BINOL based catalyst was prepared starting from anhydrous LaCl3 and an equimolar amount of the dialkali metal salt of BINOL in the presence of a small amount of water [9]. 

In conclusion, since the first example of a catalytic asymmetric nitroaldol reaction (Henry reaction) was reported in 1992 by Shibasaki et al., this reaction has been developed into a highly efficient synthetic method for the stereoselective synthesis of nitroalkanols. Using alkali metal-containing heterobimetallic... 

Hydrophosphonylation, Nitroaldol Reaction (Kaneka Co., Hokko Chemical Industry). First industrial applications of the heterobimetallic catalysts developed by Shibasaki were realized for the synthesis of several chiral-building blocks. The catalysts are aluminum or lanthanoid cations coordinated to two and three binol ligands, respectively. In addition, one or several alkali metals are coordinated to the binol as well. The asymmetric hydrophosphonylation methodology (85) is now being applied to the preparation of several a-amino phosphonic acids... 

A concept of multifunctional chiral catalysis, where the catalysts exhibit both Lewis acidity and Bronsted basicity was developed. The mnltifimctional catalysts were first reported in a catalytic asymmetric nitroaldol reaction using rare earfli metal complexes. Interestingly, heterobimetalhc... 

This kind of heterobimetallic complexes are excellent catalysts for a wide range of reactions, including epoxidation of enones, hydrophosphonylation of imines and aldehydes, and a range of asymmetric C-C bond formation reactions, involving Michael addition reaction, Diels-Alder reaction, aldol and nitroaldol reaction, etc. The alkaU metal has a profoimd effect on the catalytic property of these compounds. 

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