Polymer-Supported Dialkylzinc

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. 

The first report of a polymer-supported approach to this reaction appeared in 1987 [48]. Enantiopure amino alcohols such as ephedrine, prolinol, and 3-exo-amino-isoborneol were attached to Merrifield polymer. The use of polymer-supported 3-exo-aminoisoborneol 40 resulted in quite high enantioselectivity ( 95 % ee) in the ethylation of aldehydes with diethylzinc (Eq. 15), a result comparable with those obtained from the corresponding low-molecular-weight catalyst system (Eq. 16). A similar system was also reported in 1989, this time using ephedrine derivatives (41,42) and prolinol derivative (43) [49]. A methylene spacer was introduced between the polymer and the amino alcohol to improve activity [50]. Despite this the selectivity was always somewhat lower than that obtained from the low-molecular-weight catalyst (44). These chiral polymers were all prepared by the chemical modification method using Merrifield polymer. 

Chiral amino alcohols can be prepared by reaction of chiral epoxides with amines. Enantiopure (25, 3.R)-2,3-epoxy-3-phenylpropanol anchored to Merrifield resin has been used for ring-opening with secondary amines in the presence of lithium perchlorate to afford polymer-supported chiral amino alcohols 47 (Eq. 18) [56], By analogy, (2i ,35)-3-(cis-2,6-dimethylpiperidino)-3-phenyl-l,2-propanediol has been anchored to a 2-chlorotrityl chloride resin (48). Although this polymer had high catalytic activity in the enantioselective addition of diethylzinc to aldehydes, the selectivity of the corresponding monomeric catalyst was higher (97 % ee) in the same reaction. 

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 

Bi-2-naphthols are among the most successful chiral ligands for several asymmetric catalysts. The synthesis of binaphthyl-based chiral polymers as rigid and sterically regular chiral polymers has recently been studied extensively [65-71]. Some recent devel- 

---

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. 

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-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. 

Enantioselective addition of dialkylzinc reagents to simple ketones was promoted by Ti-based catalysts prepared from chiral ligands such as trans-1-arylsulfonylamino-2-(isobornylamino)cyclohexane derivatives [70, 71]. Chiral bissulfonamide monomer (167) was prepared and copolymerized with styrene and divinylbenzene to give polymer-supported chiral ligand (168) [72]. Polymeric chiral ligands (168) were tested in the enantioselective addition of diethylzinc to acetophenone in the... 

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-... 

---