Prochiral olefins

Efficient enantioselective asymmetric hydrogenation of prochiral ketones and olefins has been accompHshed under mild reaction conditions at low (0.01— 0.001 mol %) catalyst concentrations using rhodium catalysts containing chiral ligands (140,141). Practical synthesis of several optically active natural... 

The first application of the Jacobsen-Katsuki epoxidation reaction to kinetic resolution of prochiral olefins was nicely displayed in the total synthesis of (+)-teretifolione B by Jacobsen in 1995. 

The origin of the remarkable stereoselectivities displayed by chiral homogeneous catalysts has occasioned much interest and speculation. It has been generally assumed, using a lock-and-key concept, that the major product enantiomer arose from a rigid preferred initial binding of the prochiral olefin with the chiral catalyst. Halpren 48) on the basis of considerable evidence, reached the opposite conclusion the predominant product enantiomer arises from the minor, less stable diastereomer of the olefin-catalyst adduct, which frequently does not accumulate in sufficient concentration to be detected. The predominant adduct is in essence a dead-end complex for it hydrogenates at a much slower rate than does the minor adduct. 

Over the years, the original dihydroxylation procedure has been modified to operate catalytically, more rapidly, and in better yield. However, the last remaining task, making the dihydroxylation of a prochiral olefin enantioselective without losing all the other desirable features of the reaction, has only recently become a reality. 

In general, of the mixed phosphorus-thioether ligands that have been used in the asymmetric hydrogenation of prochiral olefins, the thioether-phosphinite ligands have provided some of the best results. As an example, a new class of thioether-phosphinite ligands developed by Evans et al. has recently proved to be very efficient for the rhodium-catalysed asymmetric hydrogenation of a... 

Several S/N ligands have also been investigated for the asymmetric hydrogenation of prochiral olefins. Thus, asymmetric enamide hydrogenations have been performed in the presence of S/N ligands and rhodium or ruthenium catalysts by Lemaire et al., giving enantioselectivities of up to 70% ee. Two... 

In addition, several S/S ligands were also investigated for the asymmetric hydrogenation of olefins. In 1977, James and McMillan reported the synthesis of various disulfoxide ligands, which were applied to the asymmetric ruthenium-catalysed hydrogenation of prochiral olefinic acid derivatives, such as itaconic acid. These ligands, depicted in Scheme 8.16, were active to provide... 

In recent years, the asymmetric hydrogenation of prochiral olefins have been developed in the presence of various chiral sulfur-containing ligands combined with rhodium, iridium or more rarely ruthenium catalysts. The best results have been obtained by using S/P ligands, with enantioselectivities of up to 99% ee in... 

The tetradentate ligands (340) and (341) form 1 1 metakligand complexes with [IrCl(cod)]2.548 The complexes were tested in the asymmetric hydrogenation of prochiral olefins, providing enantioselectivities up to 36%. The multitopic ligands L, (342) and (343), bind to Ir1 to form [IrL] species which have been characterized by elemental analysis, mass spectrometry, IR and NMR spectroscopy.549 The complexes show enantioselectivities of up to 30% for the hydrogenation of prochiral olefins under mild reaction conditions. 

Improved /V,/V-ligands, shown in Figure 103, have a chiral carbon closer to the coordinating atoms, i.e., a linkage between the carbohydrate Cl carbon and the N donor. This feature enhances the ability of the ligands to induce enantioselective coordination of prochiral olefins. 

Enantioselective carbenoid cyclopropanation can be expected to occur when either an olefin bearing a chiral substituent, or such a diazo compound or a chiral catalyst is present. Only the latter alternative has been widely applied in practice. All efficient chiral catalysts which are known at present are copper or cobalt(II) chelates, whereas palladium complexes 86) proved to be uneflective. The carbenoid reactions between alkyl diazoacetates and styrene or 1,1 -diphenylethylene (Scheme 27) are usually chosen to test the efficiency of a chiral catalyst. As will be seen in the following, the extent to which optical induction is brought about by enantioselection either at a prochiral olefin or at a prochiral carbenoid center, varies widely with the chiral catalyst used. 

Ethyl 2-phenylcyclopropanecarboxylate, obtained in the presence of 207a, has S configuration at C-l in both the cis- and trans-isomer. As that carbon has been furnished by the diazo ester, this result indicates enantiofacial selection at the carbenoid. In contrast, hardly any discrimination between the enantiofaces of the prochiral olefin occurs. Only when the ester substitutents become bulkier, does this additional stereochemical feature gain importance, and the S configuration at C-2 of the cyclopropane is favored. 

It has already been mentioned that prochirality of the olefin is not necessary for successful enantioselective cyclopropanation with an alkyl diazoacetate in the presence of catalysts 207. What happens if a prochiral olefin and a non-prochiral diazo compound are combined Only one result provides an answer to date The cyclopropane derived from styrene and dicyanodiazomethane shows only very low optical induction (4.6 % e.e. of the (25) enantiomer, catalyst 207a) 9S). Thus, it can be concluded that with the cobalt chelate catalysts 207, enantioface selectivity at the olefin is generally unimportant and that a prochiral diazo compound is needed for efficient optical induction. As the results with chiral copper 1,3-diketonates 205 and 2-diazodi-medone show, such a statement can not be generalized, of course. 

A 7r-bond can react with various active species, such as the electrophile oxene and its isoelec-tronic species (nitrenes and carbenes) and radicals. A 7r-bond can also react with a nucleophile, when it is conjugated with an electron-withdrawing group. In these reactions O, N, or C atom(s) are transferred from the active species to the olefins, forming two tr-bonds, such as C—O, C—N, and C—C, at the expense of the 7r-bond. If the 7r-bond is prochiral, chiral center(s) are... 

When a chiral ansa-type zirconocene/MAO system was used as the catalyst precursor for polymerization of 1,5-hexadiene, an main-chain optically active polymer (68% trans rings) was obtained84-86. The enantioselectivity for this cyclopolymerization can be explained by the fact that the same prochiral face of the olefins was selected by the chiral zirconium center (Eq. 12) [209-211]. Asymmetric hydrogenation, as well as C-C bond formation catalyzed by chiral ansa-metallocene 144, has recently been developed to achieve high enantioselectivity88-90. This parallels to the high stereoselectivity in the polymerization. 

The bis-DIOP complex HRh[(+)-DIOP]2 has been used under mild conditions for catalytic asymmetric hydrogenation of several prochiral olefinic carboxylic acids (273-275). Optical yields for reduction of N-acetamidoacrylic acid (56% ee) and atropic acid (37% ee) are much lower than those obtained using the mono-DIOP catalysts (10, II, 225). The rates in the bis-DIOP systems, however, are much slower, and the hydrogenations are complicated by slow formation of the cationic complex Rh(DIOP)2+ (271, 273, 274) through reaction of the starting hydride with protons from the substrate under H2 the cationic dihydride is maintained [cf. Eq. (25)] ... 

The recent discovery that a chiral phosphine ligand in a platinum(II) complex can give rise to a catalytic asymmetric hydrosilation of prochiral olefins seems to prove that a phosphine ligand can be included in the coordination sphere of platinum in an active catalytic species, but that when a phosphine ligand is so included, the activity of the species is reduced by several orders of magnitude. 

Asymmetric hydrosilation of prochiral olefins other than 1,1-disubsti-tuted ones was unsuccessful because they were unreactive under the conditions employed. Styrene afforded a 20% yield of 1-phenylethyl- and 50% of 2-phenylethylmethyldichlorosilane, both inactive. The 1-phenylethyl isomer had a possibility of activity with its asymmetric center, PhMeC HSi=. 

The development of chiral phosphorus ligands has made undoubtedly significant impact on the asymmetric hydrogenation. Transition metal catalysts with efficient chiral phosphorus ligands have enabled the synthesis of a variety of chiral products from prochiral olefins, ketones, and imines in a very efficient manner, and many practical hydrogenation processes have been exploited in industry for the synthesis of chiral drugs and fine chemicals. 

Possible elements of chirality in stereospecific polymerizations will be briefly recalled in order to indicate the used terminology. First of all, upon coordination, a prochiral olefin such as propene gives rise to not superpos-able si and re coordinations.22 According to the mechanism described, the isotactic polymer is generated by a large series of insertions of all si- or all re-coordinated monomers, while the syndiotactic polymer would be generated by alternate insertions of si - and re-coordinated monomers. 

The catalytic asymmetric hydrogenation with cationic Rh(I)-complexes is one of the best-understood selection processes, the reaction sequence having been elucidated by Halpern, Landis and colleagues [21a, b], as well as by Brown et al. [55]. Diastereomeric substrate complexes are formed in pre-equilibria from the solvent complex, as the active species, and the prochiral olefin. They react in a series of elementary steps - oxidative addition of hydrogen, insertion, and reductive elimination - to yield the enantiomeric products (cf. Scheme 10.2) [56]. 

In this chapter, we review the growing family of phospholane-based chiral ligands, and specifically examine their applications in the field of enantioselective hydrogenation. In general, this ligand class has found its broadest applicability in the reduction of prochiral olefins and, to a significantly lesser extent, ketones and imines this is reflected in the composition of the chapter. Several analogous phosphacycle systems have also been included, where appropriate. 

Table 27.2 Asymmetric hydrogenation of other prochiral olefins. 

Konishi et al.97 synthesized porphyrin compound 127. As shown in Scheme 4-44, asymmetric epoxidation of prochiral olefins such as styrene derivatives and vinyl naphthalene by iodosobenzene has been achieved by using this porphyrin complex as the catalyst in the presence of imidazole. The optically active epoxides were obtained with moderate ee. 

Better results for the porphyrin complex-catalyzed asymmetric epoxidation of prochiral olefins were achieved by Naruta et al.98 using iron complexes of chiral binaphthalene or bitetralin-linked porphyrin 128 as chiral catalysts. As shown in Scheme 4-45, asymmetric epoxidation of styrene or its analogs provided the product with good ee. Even better results were obtained with substrates bearing electron-withdrawing substituents. 

Following their success with chiral ketone-mediated asymmetric epoxidation of unfunctionalized olefins, Zhu et al.113 further extended this chemistry to prochiral enol silyl ethers or prochiral enol esters. As the resultant compounds can easily be converted to the corresponding a-hydroxyl ketones, this method may also be regarded as a kind of a-hydroxylation method for carbonyl substrates. Thus, as shown in Scheme 4-58, the asymmetric epoxidation of enol silyl... 

When an appropriate chiral phosphine ligand and proper reaction conditions are chosen, high enantioselectivity is achievable. If a diphosphine ligand with C2 symmetry is used, two diastereomers for the enamide-coordinated complex can be formed because the olefin can interact with the metal from either the Re- or Sf-face. Therefore, enantioselectivity is determined by the relative concentrations and reactivities of the diastereomeric substrate-Rh complexes. It should be mentioned that in most cases it is not the preferred mode of initial binding of the prochiral olefinic substrate to the catalyst that dictates the final stereoselectivity of these catalyst systems. The determining factor is the differ-... 

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