Nitrogen compounds, optically active

Phosphorus is m the same group of the periodic table as nitrogen and tricoordi nate phosphorus compounds (phosphines) like amines are trigonal pyramidal Phos phmes however undergo pyramidal inversion much more slowly than amines and a number of optically active phosphines have been prepared... 

X-ray analysis of an optically active oxaziridine substituted at nitrogen with the 1-phenylethyl group of known configuration led to the absolute configuration (+)-(2R,3R)-2-(5-l-phenylethyl)-3-(p-bromophenyl)oxaziridine of the dextrorotatory compound as expected, C-aryl and A-alkyl groups were trans to each other (79MI50800). 

Although unsynunetrically substituted amines are chiral, the configuration is not stable because of rapid inversion at nitrogen. The activation energy for pyramidal inversion at phosphorus is much higher than at nitrogen, and many optically active phosphines have been prepared. The barrier to inversion is usually in the range of 30-3S kcal/mol so that enantiomerically pure phosphines are stable at room temperature but racemize by inversion at elevated tempeiatuies. Asymmetrically substituted tetracoordinate phosphorus compounds such as phosphonium salts and phosphine oxides are also chiral. Scheme 2.1 includes some examples of chiral phosphorus compounds. 

Addition of a hydroxyl group to the aromatic ring of ephedrine as well as changing the substitution on nitrogen leads to a compound whose main activity is to raise blood pressure. Thus, lormation of the Shiff base of the m-hydroxy analog of 30 with bcnzylamine (34), followed by catalytic reduction, yields metar- uiiinol (35). When optically active hydroxyketone is employed in... 

In molecules in which the nitrogen atom is at a bridgehead, pyramidal inversion is of course prevented. Such molecules, if chiral, can be resolved even without the presence of the two structural features noted above. For example, optically active 12 (Trdger s base) has been prepared. Phosphorus inverts more slowly and arsenic still more slowly." Nonbridgehead phosphorus," arsenic, and antimony compounds have also been resolved... 

In Table IV some physical data and spectral characteristics of 6,7-secoberbines are listed. Only methyl corydalate (55) is optically active. Formula 55 presents the spatial structure of this compound, deduced by Nonaka et al. (65) and confirmed by Cushman et al. by both correlation with (+)-mesotetrahydrocorysamine (72) (<5S) and total synthesis (69). It is difficult to find common characteristic features in both the mass and H-NMR spectra of these alkaloids because they differ significantly from each other in their structures. On one hand, corydalic acid methyl ester (55) incorporates a saturated nitrogen heterocycle, while the three aromatic bases (56-58) differ in the character of the side chain nitrogen. For example, in mass fragmentation, ions of the following structures may be ascribed to the most intensive bands in the spectrum of 55 ... 

In the construction of C=N bond-containing compounds, such as nitrogen heterocycles, the aza-Wittig methodology has received increased attention as the method of choice [7]. Thus, an easy access to optically active (-)-vasicinone (7-15), a pyr-rolo[2,l-fc]quinazoline alkaloid which is used in indigenous medicine [8], was... 

Addition of Ketene Acetals and Enoles In recent years, much attention has been given to the synthesis of optically active nitrogen-containing compounds, with the key step being the highly stereoselective nucleophilic addition of ketene silyl acetals to nitrones (Scheme 2.174). Similar to nitrone cyanations, in ketene silyl acetal reactions one observes an accelerating effect with thiourea derivatives (633). 

Elements which form pyramidal bonding also form optically active compounds provided the groups are different. To this class belong derivatives of trivalent nitrogen, phosphines, arsines or stibines. 

In addition to sulfimides, the nitrogen analogs of sulfinates and sulfinamides are chiral and have been obtained as optically active compounds. For instance, the synthesis of diastereomeric menthyl p-toluenesulfinimidoates 90 mentioned above was effected by Cram and his collaborators (18,137) on two ways. The first comprised the reaction of racemic A -tosyl-p-tolueneiminosulfinyl chloride 92 with menthol, followed by separation of the diastereomers of 90, whereas in the second method the reaction of the ester (->45 with chloramine T was utilized. 

In recent years three other examples of asymmetric induction have been described in the literature in which the chiral sulfur reagent that induces optical activity is converted into another chiral sulfur compound. The first reaction of this type is the chlorination of 2,2-diphenylaziridine (265) by means of the optically active A -chloro-phenylmethylsulfoximide (266), affording optically active A -chloro-2, 2-diphenylaziridine (267) and the unsubstituted sulfoximide 149 (197). In this case asymmetric induction is observed on the nitrogen atom. 

An effect observed with a number of compounds which have apparent chiral centers on elements other than carbon. Eor example, secondary and tertiary amines have a pyramidal structure in which the unshared pair of electrons is at the top of the pyramid. If the three substituents hnked to the nitrogen are all different, one might suspect that the tertiary amine would give rise to optical activity and be resolvable. However, rapid oscillation of the unshared pair of electrons on one side of the nitrogen to the other (hence, pyramidal inversion) in effect causes interconversion of the two enantiomers and prevents resolution. If the nitrogen is at a bridgehead, this umbrella effect is inhibited and optical isomers can be isolated. 

Another compound in which nitrogen is connected to two oxygens is 11. In this case there is no ring at all, but it has been resolved into ( + ) and (-) enantiomers ([a] = 3°).37 This compound and several similar ones reported in the same paper are the first examples of compounds whose optical activity is solely due to an acyclic tervalent chiral nitrogen atom. However, 11 is not optically stable and racemizes at 20°C with a half-life of 1.22 hr. A similar compound (11, with OCH2Ph replaced by OEt) has a longer half-life— 37.5 hr at 20°C. 

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