Nucleophilic substitution oxidation enantioselectivity

Terminal epoxides of high enantiopurity are among the most important chiral building blocks in enantioselective synthesis, because they are easily opened through nucleophilic substitution reactions. Furthermore, this procedure can be scaled to industrial levels with low catalyst loading. Chiral metal salen complexes have also been successfully applied to the asymmetric hydroxylation of C H bonds, asymmetric oxidation of sulfides, asymmetric aziridination of alkenes, and the asymmetric alkylation of keto esters to name a few. 

Scheme 16. Comparison of TADDOL with BINOL and Future Goals. Derivatives of (R,R)-TADDOLs and of (P)- or (S)-BINOL, when employed in the same reaction, often give the same product enantiomer preferentially (cf. the Cj-symmetrical structural similarity). While TADDOLs are much easier to prepare and to modify, they are many orders of magnitude less acidic than BINOLs (TADDOLates are less polar ligands to a metal). Some TADDOL derivatives contain CPh2X groups which are labile to (undesired) nucleophilic substitution the dioxolane group of TADDOLs, on the other hand, is surprisingly stable to hydrolysis. BINOL (a naphthol derivative ) can be very sensitive to oxidation and (undesired) electrophilic aromatic substitution, and there are conditions under which it may racemize. Some goals to increase the usefulness of the TADDOL system are shown at the bottom of the Scheme other P derivatives, more acidic derivatives, reagents for enantioselective protonation, deprotonation,...

One distinguishes palladium(0)- and palladium(ll)-catalysed reactions. The most common palladium(O) transformations are the Mizoroki-Heck and the cross-coupling transformations such as the Suzuki-Miyaura, the Stille and the Sonogashira reactions, which allow the arylation or alkenylation of C=C double bonds, boronic acid derivates, stan-nanes and alkynes respectively [2]. Another important palladium(O) transformation is the nucleophilic substitution of usually allylic acetates or carbonates known as the Tsuji-Trost reaction [3]. The most versatile palladium(ll)-catalysed transformation is the Wacker oxidation, which is industrially used for the synthesis of acetaldehyde from ethylene [4]. It should be noted that many of these palladium-catalysed transformations can also be performed in an enantioselective way [5]. 

In their enantioselective total synthesis of the alkaloid cephalotaxine (246), Tietze and Schirok [127] used a combination of a Tsuji-Trost and a Mizoroki-Heck reaction (Scheme 8.62). It was necessary to adjust the reactivity of the two palladium-catalysed transformations to allow a controlled process. Reaction of 243a using Pd(PPh3)4 as catalyst led to 244, which furnished 245 in a second palladium-catalysed reaction. In this process, the nucleophilic substitution of the allylic acetate is faster than the oxidative addition of the arylbromide moiety in 243a however, if one uses the iodide 243b, then the yield drops dramatically due to an increased rate of the oxidative addition. 

In contrast, Cozzi and Umani-Ronchi found the (salen)Cr-Cl complex 2 to be very effective for the desymmetrization of meso-slilbene oxide with use of substituted indoles as nucleophiles (Scheme 7.25) [49]. The reaction is high-yielding, highly enantioselective, and takes place exclusively at sp2-hybridized C3, independently of the indole substitution pattern at positions 1 and 2. The successful use of N-alkyl substrates (Scheme 7.25, entries 2 and 4) suggests that nucleophile activation does not occur in this reaction, in stark contrast with the highly enantioselective cooperative bimetallic mechanism of the (salen)Cr-Cl-catalyzed asymmetric azidolysis reaction (Scheme 7.5). However, no kinetic studies on this reaction were reported. 

In order to permit complete conversion to one product enantiomer under the influence of a chiral catalyst, substrates for palladium-catalyzed allylic substitution either have to possess a meso structure (equation 1) or else give rise to complexes with 7t-allyl ligands as depicted in equations 2 and 3. Whereas oxidative addition of the substrate to the palladium(O) species constitutes the enantioselective step for meso compounds (equation 1), nucleophilic attack determines the absolute configuration of the product for reactive intermediates with a meso tt-allyl ligand (equation 2) or a zr-allyl unit that undergoes rapid epimerization by the n-a-n mechanism10-59 relative to substitution (equation 3). 

Recently, palladium-catalyzed asymmetric allylic substitution of an activated cyclohexenol derivative has allowed two enantioselective syntheses of (—)-galantha-mine (75) (234,235). Both approaches rely on the enantioselective preparation of the same tricyclic intermediate, which is subsequently converted to the alkaloid via stereocontrolled transformations the most efficient of which comprised stereoselective allylic oxidation of the cyclohexene moiety (Scheme 5). The same methodology allowed the synthesis of (—)-codeine and (—)-morphine (236). The same group had earlier reported the synthesis of (-l-)-pancratistatin following a related strategy (237). Use of a tosylamide as the nucleophile in the displacement of an activated aryl-cyclohexenol derivative enabled the preparation of a chiral intermediate which... 

Recently, an oxidative dearomatization of substituted phenols followed by a desymmetrizing asymmetric intramolecular Michael addition catalyzed by the pro-linol derivative 27 has been described towards the synthesis of highly functionalized polycyclic molecules with excellent enantioselectivities [40]. As shown in Scheme 2.15, the reaction starts with an oxidation of the phenol moiety to the corresponding mera-cyclohexadienones employing PhlCOAc), mild oxidant that does not react with the aldehyde nor with the catalyst. In the presence of different nucleophiles such as, methanol, cyanide, or fluoride, intermediates 26 are formed, which suffer intramolecular Michael addition of the aldehyde moiety to afford the desired chiral products 28 with excellent diastereo- and enantioselectivities. 

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