Optical activity sense

Dihydrocarveol is obtained from both optical forms of carvone, and is optically active in the same sense as the ori nal carvone. It has the following constitution —... 

A retrosynthetic analysis of fragment 152 can be completed through cleavage of the C16-C17 bond in enone 155, the projected precursor of epoxide 152. This retrosynthetic maneuver furnishes intermediates 156 and 157 as potential building blocks. In the forward sense, acylation of a vinyl metal species derived from 156 with Weinreb amide 157 could accomplish the construction of enone 155. Iodide 153, on the other hand, can be traced retrosynthetically to the commercially available, optically active building block methyl (S)-(+)-3-hydroxy-2-methyIpropionate (154). 

Optically active 2-allylpiperidines and -pyrrolidines arc obtained by treating hydroxylactams containing the l-[(S)-l-arylethyl]substituent as an auxiliary (see Appendix) with tin(IV) chloride and trimethyl(2-propenyl)silane46. Interestingly, the moderate diastereoselection when the aryl group is phenyl decreases when 2-chlorophenyl is used, whereas the sense of the stereoselectivity reverses for 2,6-dichlorophenyl or pentachlorophcnyl. These results are rationalized by application of molecular orbital theory and substrate conformational preferences46. 

This review is not comprehensive but emphasizes the more recent literature through 1985 into early 1986. References to earlier work are included in an affort to make the subject understandable to those unfamiliar with past research and also to cover topics not touched upon in recent publications. The term optically active is used here in the sense that the chiral molecule under discussion is nonracemic but not necessarily enantiomerically pure. The terms homochiral and optically pure are used synonymously with enantiomerically pure. 

Optically active polymers are potentially very useful in areas such as asymmetric catalysis, nonlinear optics, polarized photo and electroluminescence, and enantioselective separation and sensing.26 Transition metal coupling polymerization has also been applied to the synthesis of these polymers.27 For example, from the Ni(II)-catalyzed polymerization, a regioregular head-to-tail polymer 32 was obtained (Scheme 9.17).28 This polymer is optically active because of the optically active chiral side chains. 

When an optically active substrate reacts with an optically active reagent to form two new chiral centers, it is possible for both centers to be created in the desired sense. This type of process is called double asymmetric synthesis (for an example, see p. 1222). 

The preparation of helically well-ordered polymers with stable screw-sense, which is able to be transmitted to newly formed polymer main-chains effectively, is highly desired for the development of new methodology for the synthesis of optically active helical polymers. An aromatizing polymerization of 1,2-diisocyanobenzenes is promoted by methylpalladium(II) complexes, producing poly(quinoxaline-2,3-diyl)s.146-148 The polymerization proceeds with successive insertion of the two isocyano groups of the diisocyanobenzene to the carbon palladium bond of... 

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. 

Bearing this in mind, however, it is not possible to interpret the three cases of 13-15, all characterized by negative diene chirality. If diene chirality and allylic axial contributions act in the same sense, how can we explain a positive Ae for 15, having M chirality This question opens the problem of a more thorough evaluation of all the contributions to the diene optical activity. 

Polyacetylenes are the most important class of synthetic polymers containing conjugated carbon-carbon double bonds. Some optically active monomers have been used with the following conclusions. Polymers of 1-alkynes having a branched side-chain assume in solution a helical conformation. A chiral side-chain induces a predominant screw sense in these helices. In particular, for alkyl branching, it has been shown that (S) monomers lead to a left-handed screw sense. 

Optically Active Polysilanes with Diastereomeric Helidties Containing Opposite Screw Senses and Different Screw Pitches... 

The cut-and-paste technique has two steps (i) M (or P) screw-sense-selective photolysis at the longer kmax region in CC14 to form P (or M) screw sense telomers with Si-Cl termini, and (ii) Na-mediated recondensation of the telomers in hot toluene. Formation of an optically active helical polysilane with an almost single screw sense was evidenced by significant changes in the UV and CD spectra after the cut-and-paste technique, as shown in Figure 4.6b. 

This knowledge and understanding may be helpful to characterize local conformations of other optically active polysilanes in solution. For example, poly(methyl-(-)-(3-pinanylsilane) [(+)-7 Mw = 10,200] prepared by Shinohara and co-workers.281 showed a bisignate CD band at 280 and 303 nm, associated with a broad UV absorption at 300 nm in chloroform at 15°C. Since the spectroscopic features are quite similar to those of i,28d-28e it is possible that the main chain in 7 may contain diastereomeric helical motifs with opposite screw senses and different screw pitches. 

Another significant cooperativity effect in preferential helical screw sense optically active copolymers is the majority rule phenomenon.18bl8q In this case, the screw sense of a helical main chain with unequal proportions of opposite chirality enantiopure chiral side groups is controlled by the enantiomeric excess only. Since this phenomenon was first reported from poly-a-olefins made of vinyl co-monomers bearing nonenantiopure chiral moieties by Green et al.8b and Pino et al.,16b this majority rule has been established in... 

In this section, we comprehensively focused on the controlled synthesis, chiroptical characterization, and manipulation of optically active poly(dialkyl-silane)s. Although many artificial polymers adopting preferential screw sense... 

It is considered that, if ideal, optically active poly(alkyl(aryl)silane) homopolymer and copolymer systems could be obtained which had stiffer main-chain structures with longer persistence lengths, it should be possible to clarify the relationship between the gabs value and the chiral molar composition. The magnitude of the chirality of the polyisocyanates allowed precise correlations with the cooperativity models.18q In the theory of the cooperative helical order in polyisocyanates, the polymers are characterized by the chiral order parameter M, which is the fraction of the main chain twisting in one helical sense minus the fraction of the main chain twisting in the opposing sense. This order parameter is equal to the optical activity normalized by the value for an entirely one-handed helical polymer. The theory predicts... 

It is possible that the helicity is a result of the chiral substitution itself and that the polymers with achiral substituents have, in fact, all-anti conformations. While this possibility cannot be directly ruled out, comparison of the spectroscopic data for the polymers with chiral substituents and achiral substituents, for example, 47 and 48, respectively, indicates similar main-chain dihedral angles, since the UV absorption maxima are so similar. Both polymers should therefore be latent helical, that is, contain segments of opposite screw sense separated by strong kinks (helix reversal points), with the difference being that in the case of 47 the overall numbers of P and M turns are equal, whereas for 48, one of the screw senses predominates, resulting in net helicity and optical activity. 

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