Nitroaldol reactions catalyst

In order to remove a proton from I, we added almost 1 equiv of base to the LLB catalyst. After many attempts, we were finally pleased to find that 1 mol% of second-generation LLB (LLB-II), prepared from LLB, 1 mol equiv of H20, and 0.9 mol equiv of butyllithium efficiently promoted the catalytic asymmetric nitroaldol reactions. Moreover, we also found that the use of LLB-II (3.3 mol%) accelerated these reactions. The use of other bases such as NaO-t-Bu, KO-t-Bu and Ca(0-i-Pr)2 gave less satisfactory results. The results are shown in Table 2 The structure of LLB-II has not yet been unequivocally determined. We propose here, however, that it is a complex of LLB and LiOH a proposed reaction course for its use in an improved catalytic asymmetric nitroaldol reaction is shown at the bottom of Scheme 4. Industrial application of a catalytic asymmetric nitroaldol reaction is being examined. 

H. Sasai, S. Watanabe, M. Shibasaki, A New Practical Preparation Method for Lanthanum-Lithium-Binaphtol Catalysts (LLBs) for Use in Asymmetric Nitroaldol Reactions, Enantiomer, 1997,2,267-271. 

H. Sasai, T. Suzuki, N. Itoh, K. Tanaka, T. Date, K. Oka-mura, M Shibasaki, Catalytic Asymmetric Nitroaldol Reaction Using Optically Active Rare Earth BINOL Complex Investigation of the Catalyst Structure, J. Am Chem Soc 1993,115,10372-10373. 

The catalytic activity of a lanthanum (R)-BINOL complex tethered either on silica (62a) or MCM-41 (62b) was evaluated for the enantioselective nitroaldol reaction of cyclohexanecarboxaldehyde (Se), hexanal (Sf), iso-butyraldehyde (Sg) and hydro-cinnamaldehyde (Sh) with nitromethane inTHF (Scheme 12.22) [166]. The silica-anchored lanthanum catalyst 62a gave 55-76% e.e. and yields up to 87%, while the PMS-immobilized catalyst 62b revealed slightly higher e.e.s (57-84%) for the same aldehydes. The homogeneous counterparts showed similar catalytic performance, albeit within a shorter reaction time. The increased enantioselectivity observed for the MCM-41 hybrid catalyst 62b was explained by transformations inside the channels, which is also reflected by lower yields due to hindered diffusion. The recyclability of the immobilized catalysts 62b was checked with hydrocin-namaldehyde (Ph). It was found that the reused catalyst gave nearly the same enantioselectivities after the fourth catalytic run, although the time period for achieving similar conversion increased from initially 30 to 42 h. 

Aldol and Related Condensations As an elegant extension of the PTC-alkylation reaction, quaternary ammonium catalysts have been efficiently utilized in asymmetric aldol (Scheme 11.17a)" and nitroaldol reactions (Scheme ll.lTb) for the constmction of optically active p-hydroxy-a-amino acids. In most cases, Mukaiyama-aldol-type reactions were performed, in which the coupling of sUyl enol ethers with aldehydes was catalyzed by chiral ammonium fluoride salts, thus avoiding the need of additional bases, and allowing the reaction to be performed under homogeneous conditions. " It is important to note that salts derived from cinchona alkaloids provided preferentially iyw-diastereomers, while Maruoka s catalysts afforded awh-diastereomers. 

The nitroaldol reaction, particularly involving ketones has been relatively unexplored in the field of asymmetric organocatalysis. Employing cupreines and cupreidines as catalysts, Deng [63] presented an enantioselective nitroaldol reaction of a-ketoesters... 

Nitroaldol (Henry) reactions of nitroalkanes and a carbonyl were investigated by Hiemstra [76], Based on their earlier studies with Cinchona alkaloid derived catalysts, they were able to achieve moderate enantioselectivities between aromatic aldehydes and nitromethane. Until then, organocatalyzed nitroaldol reactions displayed poor selectivities. Based on prior reports by Sods [77], an activated thionrea tethered to a Cinchona alkaloid at the quinoline position seemed like a good catalyst candidate. Hiemstra incorporated that same moiety to their catalyst. Snbsequently, catalyst 121 was used in the nitroaldol reaction of aromatic aldehydes to generate P-amino alcohols in high yield and high enantioselectivities (Scheme 27). 

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. 

Scheme 6.166 Product range of the asymmetric Henry (nitroaldol) reaction of aldehydes with various nitroalkanes in the presence of (S,S)-configured catalyst 183.

Scheme 6.170 Suggested transitions states for the anti-diastereoselective Henry (nitroaldol) reaction promoted by (R,R)-catalyst 186 (TS 1) and its (S,S)-isomer 183 (TS 2) to demonstrate the match/mismatch relationship between guanidine-thiourea catalyst and (S)-a-aldehyde.

The catalytic asymmetric nitroaldol reaction was extended to a direct catalytic asymmetric nitro-Mannich-type reaction promoted by hetero-bimetallic catalysts (Scheme 2) [53-55] or by EtjNBOX-Cu complexes [56]. These topics are reviewed in Chap. 28.2. 

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. 

The nitroaldol reaction of silyl nitronates with aldehydes promoted by ammonium fluorides, which was originally introduced by Seebach and Colvin in 1978 [24], is a useful method for the preparation of 1,2-functionalized nitroalkanols. Recently, the present authors have succeeded in developing an asymmetric version of high efficiency and stereoselectivity by using a designer chiral quaternary ammonium bifluoride of type 6 as catalyst, which was readily prepared from the corresponding bromide by the modified method C in Scheme 9.5 [25]. 

The asymmetric catalytic nitroaldol reaction, also known as the asymmetric Henry reaction, is another example of an aldol-related synthesis of high general interest. In this reaction nitromethane (or a related nitroalkane) reacts in the presence of a chiral catalyst with an aldehyde, forming optically active / -nitro alcohols [122], The / -nitro alcohols are valuable intermediates in the synthesis of a broad variety of chiral building blocks, e.g. / -amino alcohols. A highly efficient asymmetric catalytic nitroaldol reaction has been developed by the Shibasaki group, who used multifunctional lanthanoid-based complexes as chiral catalysts [122-125],... 

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. 

The enantioselective nitroaldol reaction in the presence of alkaloid-based organo-catalysts has been investigated by the Matsumoto group [127]. A further focus of this study was investigation of the effect of high pressure on the course of the reaction. Addition of nitromethane to benzaldehyde at atmospheric pressure resulted in a low (4%) yield and 18% ee when a catalytic amount (3 mol%) quinidine was... 

Use of an organocatalyst in a highly diastereoselective nitroaldol reaction was reported by the Corey group in the synthesis of 123 [128]. This compound is a key building block in the synthesis of the HIV-protease inhibitor amprenavir. The alkaloid-based fluoride salt, 122, was used as an efficient chiral phase-transfer catalyst (this type of catalyst was developed by the same group [129-131]) and led to formation of the (2R,3S) diastereomer (2H,3S)-123 in 86% yield and with a diastereo-meric ratio of d.r. = 17 1 (Scheme 6.53) [128], It is worthy of note that a much... 

Chiral guanidinium-based ligands have also been used for recognition of diastereomeric salts of saccharides [45]. Some promising ligands with guani-dinium structure have not been studied yet [46], and some of them have been used as catalysts for the nitroaldol reaction [47] and Michael addition to a,P-unsaturated ketones [48]. 

The Ln-BINOL derivative complexes are efficient asymmetric catalysts for Michael reactions and the epoxidations of enones. However, as was mentioned above, almost racemic products are obtained in the case of the asymmetric nitroaldol reaction of 2 with 12. For this transformation, a new class of catalysts, heterobimetallic species, have been developed. 

Figure 9. Catalytic asymmetric nitroaldol reactions promoted by catalyst 49.

The nitroaldol (Henry) reaction6 is a powerful synthetic transformation and has been utilized in the construction of numerous natural products and other useful compounds.30 31 As shown in Figure 9, as little as 3.3 mol % of the LLB complex is a general and effective catalyst for the asymmetric nitroaldol reaction. The... 

LLB-type catalysts were also able to promote diastereoselective and enantioselective nitroaldol reactions starting from substituted nitroalkanes. In preliminary work, however, LLB itself gave unsatisfactory results in terms of both diastereoselectivity (syn/anti ratio 63 37 to 77 23) and enantioselectivity (<78% ee).32 To address the problem of modest enantio- and diastereoselectivities with... 

Another advantage was conferred by introducing 6,6 -substituents to BINOL. In general, catalytic asymmetric syntheses of fluorine-containing compounds are rather difficult.42 However, an effective asymmetric nitroaldol reaction of the rather unreactive a,ct-difluoro aldehydes proceeded satisfactorily when using the heterobimetallic asymmetric catalysts generated from 6,6 -bis[(triethylsilyl)-ethynyl]BINOL, as shown in Table 5 43 The -configuration of the nitroaldol adduct 71 showed that the nitronate reacted preferentially on the Si face of the... 

---