Organocatalysts reactions

Appendix Tabular Survey of Selected Organocatalysts Reaction Scope and Availability... 

Substituted thioureas have been used as ligands for transition-metal catalysed reactions and as organocatalysts for organic synthesis. These points will be discussed in Sects. 4 and 5. We first present some aspects of the coordination modes of ureas and thioureas. 

New organocatalysts prepared by the Jacobsen group showed that alkylation of the final amide bond increased the enantioselection (Scheme 38, compare R2 = Me, 98% ee to R2 = H, 91% ee). Thus, the reaction performed with N-allyl benzaldimine and with the dimethylamide-ending thiourea (Scheme 38 with Ri = R2 = Me) gave up to 99% ee. This compound is a structural analogue of the urea depicted in Scheme 36 [148,152,154]. 

This bifunctionnal amino-thiourea organocatalyst led to high selectivity because it was activating both the nitrone and the malonate, in its enol form, due to the acidic hydrogen atoms of the thiourea. Thus, the amino-thiourea catalyst promoted the Michael reaction of malonates to various nitroolefins... 

An enantioselective aza-Henry reaction catalysed by the same bifimctional organocatalyst was recently reported by the same group (Scheme 47) [163]. 

Diels-Alder reactions [165] using thiourea as organocatalyst were recently examined [166]. Kinetic measurements showed that accelerations of the relative reaction rates were more dependent on the thiourea substituents than on the substrates or the solvent (even in highly coordinating polar solvents like wa-... 

Aromatic thioureas were more active than alkyl (octyl, cyclohexyl) derivatives. Thioureas with trilluoromethyl substituents were even more effective. The same group also showed that these organocatalysts can act as weak Lewis acids and are thus able to alter the stereochemistry of the Diels-Alder reaction between cyclopentadiene and chiral acrylamide derivatives (Scheme 49) [167]. 

Moreover, Kobayashi et al. introduced chiral sulfoxides into the reactions of A -acylhydrazones with allyltrichlorosilanes as highly elBcient neutral coordi-nating-organocatalysts (Scheme 10.23)." The corresponding chiral homoallylic... 

It should be noted that catalytic amounts of feA-arylureas and bis-arylthioureas greatly accelerated the DABCO-promoted Baylis-Hillman reaction of aromatic aldehydes with methyl acrylate in the absence of solvent. These robust organocatalysts were better mole-per-mole promoters of the reaction than either methanol or water and they were recovered in higher yields.106... 

In a recently published report by MacMillan s group [121] on the enantioselective synthesis of pyrroloindoline and furanoindoline natural products such as (-)-flustramine B 2-219 [122], enantiopure amines 2-215 were used as organocatalysts to promote a domino Michael addition/cyclization sequence (Scheme 2.51). As substrates, the substituted tryptamine 2-214 and a, 3-unsaturated aldehydes were used. Reaction of 2-214 and acrolein in the presence of 2-215 probably leads to the intermediate 2-216, which cyclizes to give the pyrroloindole moiety 2-217 with subsequent hydrolysis of the enamine moiety and reconstitution of the imidazolid-inone catalyst. After reduction of the aldehyde functionality in 2-217 with NaBH4 the flustramine precursor 2-218 was isolated in very good 90 % ee and 78 % yield. 

A very important development in multicomponent domino reactions is the enan-tioselective approach using organocatalysts which has been recently discussed in an excellent review by Yus and Ramon [2c]. The latest great success in this field stem from Enders and coworkers, presence of an enantiopure proline derivative to give polyfunctionalized cyclohexenes with 99% ee [111]. 

More recently, a series of sol-gel hydrophobized nanostructured silica matrices doped with the organocatalyst TEMPO (SiliaCat TEMPO) entered the market as suitable oxidation catalysts for the rapid and selective production of carbonyls and carboxylic acids. In the former case, SiliaCat TEMPO selectively mediates the oxidation of delicate primary and secondary alcohol substrates into valued carbonyl derivatives (Scheme 5.2), retaining its potent activity throughout several reaction cycles (Table 5.2).33 Using this catalyst, for example, enables the synthesis of extremely valuable a-hydroxy acids with relevant selectivity enhancement by coupling of SiliaCat TEMPO with rapid Ru04-mediated olefin dihydroxylation (Scheme 5.3).34... 

In addition to metal catalysts, organocatalysts could also be used in asymmetric cyanation reactions. Chiral Lewis bases, modified cinchona alkaloids, catalyzed asymmetric cyanation of ketones by using ethyl cyanoformate as the cyanide source (Scheme 5.34)." Similar to metal-catalyzed reactions, ethyl cyanoformate was first activated by chiral Lewis bases to form active nucleophiles. Various acyclic and cyclic dialkyl ketones were transformed into the desired products. Because of using... 

Miscellaneous Reactions Berkessel " has identified peptide-like urea-based bifiinctional organocatalysts for the highly efficient dynamic kinetic resolution of azalactones (Scheme 11.14a). Another selective hydrogen-bonding activation mechanism that enables the addition of pyrroles to ketenes using catalytic quantities of azaferrocene 36 has been introduced by Fu and coworkers (Scheme 11.14b). ° ... 

Takemoto et al. were the first to report that hifunctional organocatalysts of the thiourea - tert-amine type efficiently promote certain Michael-reactions, e.g., the addition of P-dicarhonyl compounds to nitro olefins (Scheme 6) [43 5],... 

Takemoto and co-workers communicated that bifunctional organocatalyst 166 would promote aza-Henry reactions of phosphinoyl imines with nitroalkanes (Scheme 52) [104]. The catalytic additions provided high selectivities and yields... 

Recently, Kunz et al. reported a new organocatalyst for the asymmetric Strecker reaction [132]. The paracyclophane-derived imine catalyst (280) promotes the hydrocyanation of various imines, both aromatic and aliphatic (Scheme 79). 

Roles that are normally associated with metals as Lewis acids and as redox agents [4,5], can be emulated by organic compounds. This review will introduce the reader to the research field of Lewis acid organocatalysts. This field, compared to other types of organocatalysts, which are highlighted in the other chapters of this volume, is still limited. The number of asymmetric catalyzed examples is small, and the obtained enantiomeric excess is sometimes low. Therefore, this review will also cover a number of reactions promoted by achiral catalysts. Nevertheless, due to the broad variety of possible reactions, which are catalyzed by Lewis acids, this research field possesses a large potential. 

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