Optical activity determining absolute

Discovery of Optically Active Molecules and Determination of Absolute Configuration... 

Raney cobalt is generally less effective than Raney nickel, but may be of use when the rupture of other bonds must be avoided. The important use of Raney nickel desulfurization for the structure determination of thiophenes and for the determination of the absolute configuration of optically active thiophene and benzene derivatives has been stressed earlier. 

Thus, the enantiomeric contents in a pair of sulphoxides can be determined by the NMR chemical shifts in the methine or methylene protons in the two diastereomeric complexes which are stabilized by the hydrogen bond between the hydroxyl and the sulphinyl groups147-151 (Scheme 13). Similarly, the enantiomeric purity and absolute configurations of chiral sulphinate ester can be determined by measuring the H NMR shifts in the presence of the optically active alcohols152. 

In 1960, Montanari and Balenovic and their coworkers described independently the first asymmetric oxidation of sulfides with optically active peracids. However, the sulphoxides were formed in this asymmetric reaction (equation 130) with low optical purities, generally not higher than 10%. The extensive studies of Montanari and his group on peracid oxidation indicated that the chirality of the predominantly formed sulphoxide enantiomer depends on the absolute configuration of the peracid used. According to Montanari the stereoselectivity of the sulphide oxidation is determined by the balance between one transition state (a) and a more hindered transition state (b) in which the groups and at sulphur face the moderately and least hindered regions of the peracid,... 

The SH signal directly scales as the square of the surface concentration of the optically active compounds, as deduced from Eqs. (3), (4), and (9). Hence, the SHG technique can be used as a determination of the surface coverage. Unfortunately, it is very difficult to obtain an absolute calibration of the SH intensity and therefore to determine the absolute number for the surface density of molecules at the interface. This determination also entails the separate measurement of the hyperpolarizability tensor jS,-, another difficult task because of local fields effects as the coverage increases [53]. However, with a proper normalization of the SH intensity with the one obtained at full monolayer coverage, the adsorption isotherm can still be extracted through the square root of the SH intensity. Such a procedure has been followed at the polarized water-DCE interface, for example, see Fig. 3 in the case of 2-( -octadecylamino)-naphthalene-6-sulfonate (ONS) [54]. The surface coverage 6 takes the form ... 

NMR can be a powerful tool for determination of enantiomeric excess or absolute configuration of the optically active compounds, however, these processes require the use of some auxiliaries, for example, chiral lanthanide shift reagents or chiral derivatising agent. In many cases, the starting point for determination of enantiopurity of amines, amino acids or diols is the formation of chiral imines. 

On the other hand, optically active telluroxides have not been isolated until recently, although it has been surmised that they are key intermediates in asymmetric synthesis.3,4 In 1997, optically active telluroxides 3, stabilized by bulky substituents toward racemization, were isolated for the first time by liquid chromatography on optically active columns.13,14 The stereochemistry was determined by comparing their chiroptical properties with those of chiral selenoxides with known absolute configurations. The stability of the chiral telluroxides toward racemization was found to be lower than that of the corresponding selenoxides, and the racemization mechanism that involved formation of the achiral hydrate by reaction of water was also clarified. Telluroxides 4 and 5, which were thermodynamically stabilized by nitrogen-tellurium interactions, were also optically resolved and their absolute configurations and stability were studied (Scheme 2).12,14... 

Chiral sulfonium ylides have been known for some 30 years, and their stereochemistry and properties have been studied.15 Optically active selenonium ylides were obtained by reacting selenoxides with 1,3-cyclohexanedione under asymmetric conditions by Sakaki and Oae in 1976 for the first time,16 and also optically resolved by fractional recrystallization of the diastereomeric mixtures in the early 1990s.17 In 1995, optically active selenonium ylides 6 were obtained in over 99% de by nucleophilic substitution of optically active chloroselenurane or selenoxide with active methylene compounds with retention of configuration.18 The absolute configurations were determined by X-ray analysis of one... 

Optically active telluronium ylides were not obtained for a long time. Optically active diastereomeric telluronium ylides 7 were obtained for the first time in 1995 by fractional recrystallization of the diastereomeric mixture.19 The absolute configurations of the chiral telluronium ylides were determined by comparing their specific rotations and circular dichroism spectra with those of the corresponding selenonium ylide with known absolute configuration. The telluronium ylides were found to be much more stable toward racemization than the sulfonium and selenonium ylides (Scheme 4). 

This point of view finds its justification in the following observations. Compounds 8 (pyrocalciferol) and 9 (isopyrocalciferol), having opposite absolute configurations of the stereogenic centres near the dienes, show lA —> 1B Cotton effects at about 275 nm of the same sign and intensity. The reason for this is that only the twist of the chromophore determines the optical activity in fact the diene moieties are distorted in the same sense in 8 and 9, as found by X-ray diffraction16. 

Another method for determining the absolute configurations of secondary alcohols is Horeau s method, which is based on kinetic resolution. As shown in Scheme 1-14, an optically active alcohol reacts with racemic 2-phenylbutanoic anhydride (54), and an optically active 2-phenylbutanoic acid (52) is obtained after hydrolysis of the half-reacted anhydride. 

Shihunine (57), previously isolated from Dendrobium lohohense Tang and Wang (99, 100) andD. pierardii Roxb. (Orchidaceae) (101), has been found as a racemate in Banisteriopsis caapi Morton (102). This plant species also contained the optically active dihydroshihunine 58, a compound only known before as a racemic synthetic material. Both 57 and 58 were identified by direct comparison with authentic samples. The absolute configuration of (+)-(58) was determined as 25 by comparison of the CD spectra of 58 and of the a-phenylethylamines (102). 

The method, also called heavy atom method, consists in introducing a heavy atom in the molecule. Then X-rays with a wave length close to the X-ray absorption of the heavy atom is introduced. As a result a phase shift is superimposed on the ordinary diffraction pattern and configuration is then deduced. The method was first employed in 1951 by Bijvoet et al. to examine sodium rubidium tartrate who concluded that it is possible to differentiate between the two optically active forms. In other words it was possible to determine the absolute configuration of the enantiomers. Since then the absolute configurations of about two hundred optically active compounds have been elucidated by their correlation with other substances of known configuration. 

Having explored the scope of this reaction, it was then possible to use an optically active phosphoramidate (232.d), derived from (5)-a-methyl-benzylamine, to perform a kinetic resolution procedure.134,138 Upon reaction of 221 with 0.5 equiv of the phosphoramidate anion 232.d, selective reaction with the 7 -isomer of 221 resulted in an enhancement in the proportion of 5-221 along with the expected ketenimine products (233). The absolute configuration of i -233.d was determined by X-ray crystallography, and thus all other absolute configurations assigned by comparison of CD and HPLC data.39,138... 

The stereospecific conversion of sulfinates into sulfoxides of known chirality has been applied as a general method for determining the absolute configuration of a wide range of optically active sulfinic esters. For example, the absolute configurations of a series of alkyl alkanesulfinates obtained by asymmetric synthesis (107) or resolution via 3-cyclodextrin inclusion complexes (106) were determined by this method. 

An interesting example of a chemical method for determining the absolute configuration of diastereomeiic a-phenylethyl p-tolyl sulfoxides 195 based on the stereospecific sulfinate-sulfoxide conversion has been reported by Nishio and Nishihata (206). In this work optically active a-phenylethyl p-tolyl sulfoxides 195 and the corresponding sulfones 196 were prepared in two different ways and their specific rotations compared (see Scheme 18). Thus, oxidation of (-H5c) Phenylethyl p-tolyl sulfide 197 with hydrogen peroxide... 

NMR spectroscopy was found to be a valuable technique for differentiation between the enantiomers of optically active compounds. The principles of the methods used to distinguish between enantiomers by means of NMR have been developed and reviewed by Mis-low and Raban (217). The best results from the point of view of the determination of optical purity and absolute configuration of chiral sulfur compounds, especially of sulfinyl compounds, have been obtained with the help of chiral solvents (218). Pirkle (86) was the first to demonstrate that enantiomeric sulfoxides have nonidentical NMR spectra when dissolved in chiral alcohols having the following general formula ... 

Between 1926 and 1962, numerous ORD curves of optically active sulfoxides were described in the literature for the visible and ultraviolet (UV) regions. However, down to about 250 nm all compounds investigated showed plain curves with [0] increasing toward shorter wavelengths, and this limited their diagnostic value for the determination of the absolute configuration of these compounds. 

Optically Active Sulfur Compounds Absolute Configuration at Sulfur Determined by X-Ray Analysis... 

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