Prochiral reagent

Sulfoxides (R1—SO—R2), which are tricoordinate sulfur compounds, are chiral when R1 and R2 are different, and a-sulfmyl carbanions derived from optically active sulfoxides are known to retain the chirality. Therefore, these chiral carbanions usually give products which are rich in one diastereomer upon treatment with some prochiral reagents. Thus, optically active sulfoxides have been used as versatile reagents for asymmetric syntheses of many naturally occurring products116, since optically active a-sulfinyl carbanions can cause asymmetric induction in the C—C bond formation due to their close vicinity. In the following four subsections various reactions of a-sulfinyl carbanions are described (A) alkylation and acylation, (B) addition to unsaturated bonds such as C=0, C=N or C= N, (C) nucleophilic addition to a, /5-unsaturated sulfoxides, and (D) reactions of allylic sulfoxides. 

Nef reactions. The nitroaldol reactions from prochiral reagents show very high... 

K > m prochiral reagents show very high k. > derived from 6,6-disubstituted BINOLs D. ze. >des also undergo this condensation. ... 

Aldehydes are "prochiral", thus addition of an organometallic reagent to an aldehydes may be stereoselective,... 

In cases where Noyori s reagent (see p. 102f.) and other enantioselective reducing agents are not successful, (+)- or (—)-chlorodiisopinocampheylborane (Ipc BCl) may help. This reagent reduces prochiral aryl and tert-alkyl ketones with exceptionally high enantiomeric excesses (J. Chandrasekharan, 1985 H.C. Brown, 1986). The initially formed boron moiety is usually removed hy precipitation with diethanolamine. Ipc2BCl has, for example, been applied to synthesize polymer-supported chiral epoxides with 90% e.e. from Merrifield resins (T. Antonsson, 1989). 

The enzyme-catalyzed interconversion of acetaldehyde and ethanol serves to illustrate a second important feature of prochiral relationships, that ofprochiral faces. Addition of a fourth ligand, different from the three already present, to the carbonyl carbon of acetaldehyde will produce a chiral molecule. The original molecule presents to the approaching reagent two faces which bear a mirror-image relationship to one another and are therefore enantiotopic. The two faces may be classified as re (from rectus) or si (from sinister), according to the sequence rule. If the substituents viewed from a particular face appear clockwise in order of decreasing priority, then that face is re if coimter-clockwise, then si. The re and si faces of acetaldehyde are shown below. 

Reaction of an achiral reagent with a molecule exhibiting enantiotopic faces will produce equal quantities of enantiomers, and a racemic mixture will result. The achiral reagent sodium borodeuteride, for example, will produce racemic l-deM/eno-ethanol. Chiral reagent can discriminate between the prochiral faces, and the reaction will be enantioselective. Enzymatic reduction of acetaldehyde- -[Pg.106]

Chiral chemical reagents can react with prochiral centers in achiral substances to give partially or completely enantiomerically pure product. An example of such processes is the preparation of enantiomerically enriched sulfoxides from achiral sulfides with the use of chiral oxidant. The reagent must preferential react with one of the two prochiral faces of the sulfide, that is, the enantiotopic electron pairs. 

The hydride-donor class of reductants has not yet been successfully paired with enantioselective catalysts. However, a number of chiral reagents that are used in stoichiometric quantity can effect enantioselective reduction of acetophenone and other prochiral ketones. One class of reagents consists of derivatives of LiAlH4 in which some of die hydrides have been replaced by chiral ligands. Section C of Scheme 2.13 shows some examples where chiral diols or amino alcohols have been introduced. Another type of reagent represented in Scheme 2.13 is chiral trialkylborohydrides. Chiral boranes are quite readily available (see Section 4.9 in Part B) and easily converted to borohydrides. 

The carbonyl carbon of an unsymmetrical ketone is a prochiral center reaction with a Grignard reagent 2 (R 7 R, R") can take place on either face of the carbonyl group with equal chance. The products 8a and 8b are consequently formed in equal amounts as racemic mixture, as long as no asymmetric induction becomes effective ... 

A convenient and simple route to chiral sulphoxides is an asymmetric oxidation of prochiral sulphides by optically active oxidizing reagents. 

Chiral diamino carbene complexes of rhodium have been merely used in asymmetric hydrosilylations of prochiral ketones but also in asymmetric addition of aryl boron reagents to enones. 

Also, desymmetrization of prochiral hydroxyalkylphosphine P-boranes was successfully performed using similar reagents and conditions. In the case of bis(hydroxymethyl)phenylphosphine P-borane 87, both its acetylation and hydrolysis of the diacetyl derivative 89 gave good results, although in addition to the expected monoacetate 88, the diol 87 and diacetate 89 were always present in the reaction mixture (Equation 42). °°... 

Cyclodextrin mediated oxidation of prochiral sulphides by achiral oxidation reagents leads also to optically active sulphoxides (e.e. up to 30%). When oxidation was carried out in pyridine the highest optical purities were obtained with hydrogen peroxide, whereas in water the best results were observed with m-chloroperbenzoic acid .. 

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