Polymer dialkylzinc

The most important reaction with Lewis acids such as boron trifluoride etherate is polymerization (Scheme 30) (72MI50601). Other Lewis acids have been used SnCL, Bu 2A1C1, Bu sAl, Et2Zn, SO3, PFs, TiCU, AICI3, Pd(II) and Pt(II) salts. Trialkylaluminum, dialkylzinc and other alkyl metal initiators may partially hydrolyze to catalyze the polymerization by an anionic mechanism rather than the cationic one illustrated in Scheme 30. Cyclic dimers and trimers are often products of cationic polymerization reactions, and desulfurization of the monomer may occur. Polymerization of optically active thiiranes yields optically active polymers (75MI50600). 

Polymer-supported amino alcohols and quaternary ammonium salts catalyze the enan-tioselective addition of dialkylzinc reagents to aldehydes (Table 31). When the quaternary ammonium salt F is used in hexane, it is in the solid state, and it catalyzes the alkylation of benzaldehyde with diethylzinc in good chemical yield and moderate enantioselectivity. On the other hand, when a mixture of dimethylformamide and hexane is used as solvent, the ammonium salt is soluble and no enantioselectivity is observed21. 

The polymer-bound catalysts A-C. (Table 31) are prepared by reaction of the corresponding amino alcohols with partially chloromethylated 1 -2% cross-linked polystyrene. In the case of A, the enantioselectivity of the addition of dialkylzincs to aldehydes is higher than with the corresponding monomeric ephedrine derivatives (vide supra). Interesting insights into the mechanism of the alkylation of aldehydes by dialkylzinc reagents can be obtained from the experi-... 

Pu and co-workers incorporated atropisomeric binaphthols in polymer matrixes constituted of binaphthyl units, the macromolecular chiral ligands obtained being successfully used in numerous enantioselective metal-catalyzed reactions,97-99 such as asymmetric addition of dialkylzinc reagents to aldehydes.99 Recently, they also synthesized a stereoregular polymeric BINAP ligand by a Suzuki coupling of the (R)-BINAP oxide, followed by a reduction with trichlorosilane (Figure 10).100... 

Method B (catalysed by polymer-supported chiral fl-hydroxyamines) The aldehyde (1 mmol) is added to the polymer-supported catalyst (0.298 g) in n-C6Hu (2 ml) at 0°C and the mixture is stirred for 15 min. The dialkylzinc (1M in rt-C6H 4, 2.2 ml) is added and the mixture is stirred for 1-8 days at 0°C. The reaction is quenched with aqueous HCI (1M, 5 ml) and the mixture is filtered and extracted with CH2C12 (3x10 ml). The dried (Na2S04) extracts are evaporated to yield the chiral secondary alcohol. 

The amino alcohol-catalyzed enantioselective addition of dialkylzincs to aldehydes, detailed in Chapter 5 (27), is accomplished with polymer catalysts containing DAIB, a camphor-derived auxiliary, and other chiral amino alcohols (28). Reactions that involve matrix isolation of the catalyst not only result in operational simplicity but also greatly facilitate understanding of the reaction mechanism. In solution, the catalytic chiral alkylzinc alkoxide derived from a dialkylzinc and DAIB exists primarily as dimer (27) however, when immobilized, its monomeric structure can be maintained. 

The first report on the coordination polymerisation of epoxide, leading to a stereoregular (isotactic) polymer, concerned the polymerisation of propylene oxide in the presence of a ferric chloride-propylene oxide catalyst the respective patent appeared in 1955 [13]. In this catalyst, which is referred to as the Pruitt Baggett adduct of the general formula Cl(C3H60)vFe(Cl)(0C3H6),CI, two substituents of the alcoholate type formed by the addition of propylene oxide to Fe Cl bonds and one chlorine atom at the iron atom are present [14]. A few years later, various types of catalyst effective for stereoselective polymerisation of propylene oxide were found and developed aluminium isopropoxide-zinc chloride [15], dialkylzinc-water [16], dialkylzinc alcohol [16], trialkylalumi-nium water [17] and trialkylaluminium-water acetylacetone [18] and trialkyla-luminium lanthanide triacetylacetonate H20 [19]. Other important catalysts for the stereoselective polymerisation of propylene oxide, such as bimetallic /1-oxoalkoxides of the [(R0)2A10]2Zn type, were obtained by condensation of zinc acetate with aluminium isopropoxide in a 1 2 molar ratio of reactants [20-22]. 

An interesting behavior of the polymerization would be the formation of optically active polymers from racemic olefin oxides (81, 153, 154, 162a, 208,212-214,215a, 250,274,275,316,393,500,504,507,508,510, 511). The catalyst systems consist of dialkylzinc and optically active alcohol or amino acid. In the polymerization, one enantiomer of the racemic monomer is selectively introduced in the polymer. 

The dialkylzinc compounds are extremely moisture sensitive and even react explosively with bulk water. Nevertheless, cryoscopic studies carried out on the controlled hydrolysis of diethylzinc show the formation of organozinc hydroxide EtZnOH as intermediate. This intermediate, which is thought to have the dimeric structure (EtZnOH)2, is very unstable and reacts further to give polymers of the form Et(ZnO) (equation 19). Some of these products exhibit a good catalytic activity for the polymerization of lactones and cyclic ethers. 

The slow nucleophilic addition of dialkylzinc reagents to aldehydes can be accelerated by chiral amino alcohols, producing secondary alcohols of high enantiomeric purity. The catalysis and stereochemistry can be interpreted satisfactorily in terms of a six-membered cyclic transition state assembly [46,47], In the absence of amino alcohol, dialkylzincs and benzaldehyde have weak donor-acceptor-type interactions. When amino alcohol and dialkylzinc are mixed, the zinc atom acts as a Lewis acid and activates the carbonyl of the aldehyde. Zinc in this amino alcohol-zinc complex is regarded as a kind of chirally modified Lewis acid. Various kinds of polymer-supported chiral amino alcohol have recently been prepared and used as ligands in dialkylzinc alkylation of aldehydes. 

Not only polystyrene supports, also other polymer supports were used in the preparation of polymeric amino alcohol ligands for dialkylzinc alkylation. For example, a vinylferrocene derivative with A,N -disubstituted norephedrine was copolymerized with vinylferrocene [60]. This polymeric chiral ligand (53) was used in the ethylation of aldehydes with moderate activity. Brown has reported that chiral oxazaborolidines have catalytic activity in the addition of diethyl zinc to aldehydes [61]. Polymers bearing chiral oxazaborolidines 37 were also active in the reaction and result on moderate enantioselectivity (<58 % ee) [62]. Enantiopure a,a -diphenyl-L-prolinol coupled to a copolymer prepared from 2-hydroxyethylmethacrylate and octadecyl methacrylate... 

The amino alcohol-dialkylzinc system can be applied to ehiral amine synthesis. Polymer-supported ephedrine was found to be an effective chiral ligand in the reaction of N-diphenylphosphinoylimines with diethylzinc (Eq. 19) [77-79]. The polymeric catalysts were, however, less efficient than monomeric model reactions. Several dendrimeric chiral ligands containing the ephedrine moiety (60, 61) have also been synthesized and used in the asymmetric alkylation of 7 -diphenylphosphinylimines by diethylzinc [80]. Both yield and enantioselectivity of the reaction were, however, lower when the dendrimeric ligands were used. 

Chiral polymer-supported catalysts have been utilized in asymmetric addition of dialkylzinc to aldehydes because of the easy product isolation and workup [26]. In the previous section, a highly enantioselective addition of diethylzinc to aldehydes was described using M-(l-ferrocenylalkyl)-iV-alkylnorephedrines as effective catalysts. We then examined incorporation of the catalyst into polymeric systems. 

Comma, P. J. Beck, A. K. Seebach, D., A Simple Batch Reactor for the Efficient Multiple Use of Polymer-bound a,a,a ,a -Tetraaryl-l,3-dioxolane-4,5-dimethanol Titanates in the Nucleophilic Addition of Dialkylzinc Reagents to Aldehydes. Org. Process Res. Dev 1998, 2,18. 

Soai et al. [62a] first reported the use of sihca gel or alumina as a heterogeneous support for chiral catalysts in the enantioselective addition of dialkylzincs to aldehydes. Chiral N-alkyhrorephedrines (R = Me, Et, n-Pr) were immobilized covalently on (3-chloropropyl)silyl-functionalized alumina or silica gel via a nucleophilic substitution. However, the catalytic activities and enantioselectivities were only moderate (24—59% ee) in comparison with those of homogeneous and polymer-... 

---