Propionate enolate enantioselective aldol reaction

Covalently bonded chiral auxiliaries readily induce high stereoselectivity for propionate enolates, while the case of acetate enolates has proved to be difficult. Alkylation of carbonyl compound with a novel cyclopentadienyl titanium carbohydrate complex has been found to give high stereoselectivity,44 and a variety of ft-hydroxyl carboxylic acids are accessible with 90-95% optical yields. This compound was also tested in enantioselective aldol reactions. Transmetalation of the relatively stable lithium enolate of t-butyl acetate with chloro(cyclopentadienyl)-bis(l,2 5,6-di-<9-isopropylidene-a-D-glucofuranose-3-0-yl)titanate provided the titanium enolate 66. Reaction of 66 with aldehydes gave -hydroxy esters in high ee (Scheme 3-23). 

The development of enantioselective aldol reactions has been widely studied in conjunction with the synthesis of natural products. Highly enantioselective aldol reactions have been achieved by employing chiral enolates of ethyl ketones and propionic acid derivatives.(1) On the other hand, achieving high asymmetric induction in the asymmetric aldol reaction of methyl ketones is still a problem.(2)... 

Enantioselective Aldol Reactions. The use of 1 for generating two contiguous stereocenters via an asymmetric aldol condensation has also been investigated,but only with marginal success. For example, reaction of the lithium enolate derived from tert-butyl propionate with the /Y-lithio derivative of 1, followed by condensation with benzaldehyde, provided a mixture of anti and syn aldol products in poor-to-modest % ee (eq 8). 

Some of the most impressive advances in the area of catalytic, enantioselective aldol addition reactions have taken place in the development of catalytic methods for enantioselective acetate aldol additions, a reaction type that has long been recalcitrant. Thus, although prior to 1992 a number of chiral-auxiliary based and catalytic methods were available for diastereo- and enantiocontrol in propionate aldol addition reactions, there was a paucity of analogous methods for effective stereocontrol in the addition of the simpler acetate-derived enol silanes. However, recent developments in this area have led to the availability of several useful catalytic processes. Thus, in contrast to the state of the art in 1992, it is possible to prepare acetate-derived aldol fragments utilizing asymmetric catalysis with a variety of transition-metal based complexes of Ti(IV), Cu(II), Sn(II), and Ag(I). 

Aldol Addition. A catalyst generated upon treatment of Cu(OTf)2 with the (5,5)-r-Bu-box ligand has been shown to be an effective Lewis acid for the enantioselective Mukaiyama aldol reaction. The addition of substituted and unsubstituted enolsilanes at -78 °C in the presence of 5 mol % catalyst was reported to be very general for various nucleophiles, including silyl dienolates and enol silanes prepared from butyrolactone as well as acetate and propionate esters. 

As above (eq 1), a major drawback of this reagent is the lack of a readily available enantiomer. There are many alternative methods for the enantioselective propionate aldol reaction. The most versatile chirally modified propionate enolates or equivalents are N-propionyl-2-oxazolidinones, a-siloxy ketones, boron enolates with chiral ligands, as well as tin enolates. Especially rewarding are new chiral Lewis acids for the asymmetric Mukaiyama reaction of 0-silyl ketene acetals. Most of these reactions afford s yw-aldols good methods for the anri-isomers have only become available recently. ... 

Analogous with the previous results of enol silyl ethers of ketones, nonsubstituted ketene silyl acetals are found to exhibit lower levels of stereoregulation, while the propionate-derived ketene silyl acetals display a high level of asymmetric induction. The reactions with aliphatic aldehydes, however, resulted in a slight reduction in optical and chemical yields. With phenyl ester-derived ketene silyl acetals, syn adducts predominate, but the selectivities are moderate in most cases in comparison with the reactions of ketone-derived silyl enol ethers. Exceptions are a,p-unsaturated aldehydes, which revealed excellent diastereo- and enantioselectivities. The observed syn selectivity and re-face attack of nucleophiles on the carbonyl carbon of aldehydes are consistent with the aforementioned aldol reactions of ketone-derived enol silyl ethers. 

The utility of thiazolidinethione chiral auxiliaries in asymmetric aldol reactions is amply demonstrated in a recent enantioselective synthesis of apoptolidinone. This synthesis features three thiazolidinethione propionate aldol reactions for controlling the configuration of 6 of 12 stereogenio centers <05JA13810>. For example, addition of aldehyde 146 to the enolate solution of A -propionyl thiazolidinethione 145 produces aldol product 147 with excellent selectivity (>98 2) for the Evans syn isomer. Compound 145 also undergoes diastereoselective aldol addition with bisaryl aldehyde 148 to give the Evans syn product 149, which is converted to eupomatilone-6 in 6 steps <05JOC9658>. 

In the reaction of the tin(II) enolate derived from (1) with aldehydes, enantioselectivities are disappointingly low, while good diastereoselectivities are observed. Highly diastereo- and enan-tioselective aldol reactions of propionate derivatives with aldehydes have been achieved by using the ketene silyl thioacetal (7) instead of the tin(II) enolate. The complex (8) produced by mixing tin(n) triflate and the chiral diamine (6) works as an efficient chiral Lewis acid. The reaction of (7) with various aldehydes proceeds smoothly in the presence of (8) and dibutyltin diacetate in dichloromethane to afford the syn aldol adducts in high yields with almost perfect stereochemical control (eq 9). ... 

Significant efforts have extended the scope of catalytic enantioselective Mukaiyama aldol addition reactions beyond the acetate and propionate enoxysilanes and have been used traditionally. Recent reports describe novel addition reactions of silyl dienolates along with isobutyrate-derived enol silanes. 

The use of these boryl complexes in catalytic, enantioselective additions to aldehydes by silyl ketene acetals has also been the subject of intense investigation by Yamamoto (Eq. 30) [108]. Although ethyl and benzyl acetate-derived enol silanes furnished racemic products, the phenyl acetate-derived trimethylsilyl ketene acetals proved optimal, giving adducts in up to 84% ee. Additionally, Yamamoto has documented the use of 184 in aldol addition reactions of propionate- and isobutyrate-derived enol silanes (Eqs. 31 and 32). Thus, the addition of the phenyl acetate derived (E)-enol silane afforded adducts as diastereomeric mixtures with the syn stereoisomer displaying up to 97% ee (Eq. 32). 

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