Phosphine-based catalysts, asymmetric catalysis

Asymmetric Catalysis with Immobilized Phosphine-Based Catalysts. 64... 

In the preceding examples, the asymmetric catalyst is a Lewis acid and hence the catalytic processes reported so far involve electrophilic activation by a metal-centred chiral Lewis acid. There is another strategy, although less explored, which consists of designing chiral Lewis bases for nucleophilic catalysis. It is well known that Lewis bases such as nitrogen heterocycles and tertiary phosphines and amines catalyse a variety of important chemical processes. For instance 4-(dimethylamino)pyridine (DMAP) catalyses the acylation of alcohols by anhydrides the mechanism by which DMAP accelerates this process provides an instmctive illustration of how nucleophiles can... 

The present interest in asymmetric catalysis was demonstrated by awarding Nobel prizes to three winners W. S. Knowles (USA) for elaboration of rhodium complex catalysts effective in asymmetric synthesis of anti-Parkinson medicine, R. Noyori (Japan) for elaboration of a new catalytic system based on chiral ruthenium-phosphine complex catalysts that are very effective in hydrogenation reactions, and B. Sharpless (USA) for elaboration of epoxidation and other reactions under the action of chiral titanium complexes. 

Lewis base or nucleophilic catalysis by chiral amines, amine or phosphine iV-oxides, sulfides, and phosphines has been intensively exploited in asymmetric organocatalysis [122]. Representative catalysts are shown in Figure 2.27. 

Shibasaki has described the use of bifunctional catalysis in asymmetric Strecker reactions, using BlNOL-derived Lewis acid-Lewis base catalyst 160 (Equation 24) [114]. The aluminum complex had previously been shown to catalyze enantioselective cyanohydrin formation (Chapter 2, Section 2.9) [115]. In the proposed catalytic cycle, the imine is activated by the Lewis acidic aluminum while TMSCN undergoes activation by association of the silyl group with the Lewis basic phosphine oxide. Interestingly, the addition of phenol as a putative proton source was beneficial in facilitating catalyst turnover. The nature of the amine employed for the formation of the N-substituted aldimine proved to be vital for enantioselectivity, with optimal results obtained for N-fluorenyl imines such as 159, derived from aliphatic, unsaturated, and aromatic aldehydes (70-96% ee) [114],... 

Besides the metal complexes based on Ni and Pd that were previously proved suitable for the asymmetric hydrovinylation reactions, Ru and Co complexes have also been employed in this type of transformation. The one sole example of Ru-catalyzed enantioselective hydrovinylation was reported by the List group in 2012. In their initial studies, they envisioned that Ni complexes with chiral counteranions might enable the desired reaction. However, it was found that these species either were unreactive or did not furnish enantioselective control in the hydrovinylation reactions. In this context, Jiang and List focused their attention on Ru catalysis (Table 9.6). Systematic evaluation on the effects of Ru complexes ligated by different phosphine ligands as well as various chiral phosphate anions introduced by the corresponding silver salts demonstrated that the combination of Ru complex Ru-3 and additive Ag-1 was the optimal catalyst, leading to acceptable results (entry 8). 

An important milestone in the history of asymmetric homogeneous catalysis was the development of asymmetric homogeneous hydrogenation catalysts based on rhodium complexes with chiral phosphine ligands. Scientists at Monsanto, over a period of years, developed catalysts for the production on an industrial scale of L-Dopa [31-33]. The key step is the asymmetric hydrogenation of an enamide (Scheme 7.6). 

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