Optically pure compounds, production methods

Substituted acrylates (which reseitible the enamide substrates employed 1n asymmetric hydrogenation) may be deracemized by reduction with an optically active catalyst, especially DIPAMPRh . Selectivity ratios of 12 1 to 22 1 have been obtained for a variety of reactants with compounds of reasonable volatility, separation of starting material and product may be effected by preparative GLC. Recovered starting material can then be reduced with an achiral catalyst to give the optically pure anti product. Examples of kinetic resolutions by this method are given in Table II. More recently very successful kinetic resolutions of allylic alcohols have been carried out with Ru(BINAP) catalysts. 

In the case of diastereomeric mixtures of chiral hydroperoxides, standard chromatography on achiral phase can be employed to separate the diastereomers. As one example for the preparation of optically pure hydroperoxides via this method, the ex-chiral pool synthesis of the pinane hydroperoxides 11 is presented by Hamann and coworkers . From (15 )-cw-pinane [(15 )-cw-10], two optically active pinane-2-hydroperoxides cA-lla and trans-llb were obtained by autoxidation according to Scheme 17. Autoxidation of (IR)-c -pinane [(17 )-cw-10] led to the formation of the two enantiomers ent-lla and ent-llh. The ratio of cis to trans products was 4/1. The diastereomers could be separated by flash chromatography to give optically pure compounds. 

The procedure of enriching the (S) —(+)-enantiomer to 100% enantiomeric excess by the previously described crystallization method 1s tedious.4 It provides optically pure ethyl (S)-(+)-3-(3, 5 -dlnltro-benzoyloxy)butanoate of [ ]q5 +26.3° (chloroform, a 2), which after cleavage gives enantiomerically pure ( )-(+)-ethyl 3-hydroxybutanoate of [< ](j5 + 43.5° (chloroform, a 1.0). This optically pure compound has recently become commercially available from Fluka AG, CH-9470 Buchs (Switzerland), but it is very expensive. After submission and checking of this procedure, it was shown that the ee of the product can be increased to >95% by working under aerobic conditions and by adding the ketoester more slowly. 

Although acetylenic bonds are more reactive than C=C bonds, the reactions are often initiated by AIBN or UV radiation. Baldwin and Barden119 have used the latter method to treat a doubly labelled phenylacetylene with triphenyltin deuteride (Scheme 19). The addition of the triphenyltin deuteride was both regiospecific and gave a stereochemically pure product. A five-step synthesis (Scheme 20) converted this product into an optically pure trideuterophenylcyclopropane, which was used to study the thermal stereomutations that these compounds undergo. 

Since the early times of stereochemistry, the phenomena related to chirality ( dis-symetrie moleculaire, as originally stated by Pasteur) have been treated or referred to as enantiomericaUy pure compounds. For a long time the measurement of specific rotations has been the only tool to evaluate the enantiomer distribution of an enantioimpure sample hence the expressions optical purity and optical antipodes. The usefulness of chiral assistance (natural products, circularly polarized light, etc.) for the preparation of optically active compounds, by either resolution or asymmetric synthesis, has been recognized by Pasteur, Le Bel, and van t Hoff. The first chiral auxiliaries selected for asymmetric synthesis were alkaloids such as quinine or some terpenes. Natural products with several asymmetric centers are usually enantiopure or close to 100% ee. With the necessity to devise new routes to enantiopure compounds, many simple or complex auxiliaries have been prepared from natural products or from resolved materials. Often the authors tried to get the highest enantiomeric excess values possible for the chiral auxiliaries before using them for asymmetric reactions. When a chiral reagent or catalyst could not be prepared enantiomericaUy pure, the enantiomeric excess (ee) of the product was assumed to be a minimum value or was corrected by the ee of the chiral auxiliary. The experimental data measured by polarimetry or spectroscopic methods are conveniently expressed by enantiomeric excess and enantiomeric... 

Optically pure l,l -binaphthol and its derivatives have been evaluated as versatile chiral auxiliaries and ligands in asymmetric transformations. Research in this area has provided many efficient and useful methods for the preparation of key chiral building blocks, some of which have been used for the construction of complex natural products. The wide ranging and important applications of such compounds in organic synthesis have stimulated great interest in developing efficient methods... 

The biological properties of phosphorus amino acid analogues (and their derivatives) depend upon their stereochemistry. Consequently, numerous methods for obtaining these compounds in stereochemically pure form have been developed. Two excellent review articles summarize the work performed prior to 1993. 3,4 Resolution of racemates continues to be a useful approach for obtaining optically pure aminoalkylphosphonic and -phosphinic acid derivatives (vide infra), but most of the newer literature describes asymmetric syntheses of these compounds.15-17 Two methods for resolution and one for asymmetric synthesis are described (vide infra) they have been selected since they are relatively easy to perform, work with a variety of side chains, can be carried out on a reasonable scale with readily available starting materials, and produce products of high stereopurity. However, just as in traditional amino acid chemistry, each side chain introduces its own complications, and in many cases, especially for more complex analogues, other methods may be preferred. 

Although some kinds of optically active compounds can be prepared by an asymmetric synthesis using a chiral catalyst, this method is not applicable for preparation of all kinds of compounds. Furthermore, optical yields of the product are not always very high. On the contrary, optical resolution method by inclusion complexation with a chiral host is applicable to various kinds of guest compounds as described in this chapter. When optically pure product cannot be obtained by one resolution procedure, perfect resolution can be accomplished by repeating the process, although asymmetric synthetic process cannot be repeated. Especially, optical resolutions by inclusion complexation with a chiral host in a water suspension medium and by fractional distillation in the presence of a chiral host are valuable as green and sustainable processes. 

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