Racemic compounds metal-based racemization

Catalytic transformation based on combined enzyme and metal catalysis is described as a new class of methodology for the synthesis of enantiopure compounds. This approach is particularly useful for dynamic kinetic resolution in which enzymatic resolution is coupled with metal-catalyzed racemization for the conversion of a racemic substrate to a single enantiomeric product. 

The configurational stability of chiral allenylmetal reagents depends to a large extent on the nature of the metal substituent. The mechanism of the racemization process has not been studied in detail, but two reasonable pathways can be proposed, based on known reactivity characteristics of these compounds. The first entails reversible intermolecular SE- rearrangement to the propargylic isomer. This process could proceed by a pure syn or anti pathway, in which case no racemization would take place. However, the occurrence of both pathways would result in racemization (Scheme 9.5). 

Dynamic kinetic resolution (DKR) is an attractive protocol for the production of enantiopure compounds from racemic mixtures [45]. The concept of DKR is illustrated in Scheme 5.13. In many cases, DKRs are accomplished by the combination of enzymatic resolution and transition-metal-catalyzed racemization based on hydrogen transfer. Thus, the use of Cp Ir complexes as catalysts for racemization in DKR can be anticipated. 

Enantiomerically pure 3-amino alcohols which are important intermediates for many bioactive compounds can be directly synthesized by the ARO reaction of readily accessible racemic and meso epoxides with appropriate amines. Indeed, some simple and multifunctional p-amino alcohols have been obtained using this strategy by the promotion of chiral BINOL [30-32,88,89], salen [35,52], bipyridine [33,40,90-94] and proline-A,JV-dioxide based metal complexes [95]. However, none of these systems demonstrated the recyclability of the precious chiral catalyst. 

The third method used in the resolution of racemates is the kinetic resolution. The success of this method is depending on the fact that the two enantiomers react at different rates with a chiral entity. The chiral entity should be present in catalytic amounts it may be a biocatalyst (enzyme or a microorganism) or a chemocatalyst (chiral acid or base or even a chiral metal complex). Kinetic resolution of racemic compounds is by far the most common transformation catalyzed by lipases, in which, the enzyme discriminate between the two enantiomers of racemic mixture, so that one enantiomer is readily transferred to the product faster than the other.1"18 (cf. fig 3)... 

The basis of the method is akin to the Pfeiffer effect [8] except that, in this instance, the roles of the ligands are reversed and reorganization of the inner sphere and not the outer sphere of the metal is intimately involved. The racemate originates in the solution environment and the enantiomer is part of the coordination compound (vide infra). Calculation of the enantioexcess is most easily done using spectral differences. Figure 5 shows the CD spectrum for the parent complex (lowest curve) where M is Cu(II) and L is L-tartrate in strong base together with a series of curves in which the L-pseudoephedrine concentration has been systematically increased. An isosbestic point at 538 nm is obvious [51]. 

The epoxidation of alkenes, both racemic and enantioselective, has been extensively studied in ionic liquids and Table 5.3 provides a summary of these reactions. Although no transition metal is involved, the base-catalysed epoxidation of electrophilic alkenes in ionic liquids is worth briefly mentioning. Depending on the substrate and the reaction conditions, ,/ -unsaturated carbonyl compounds were oxidised with aqueous H2O2 in [C4Ciim][BF4] or [C4Ciim][PF6] within minutes under mild conditions and no hydrolysis products were observed.120-221 The extraction of the products with scC02 instead of conventional solvents was demonstrated to be feasible, albeit on a small scale.1231... 

The method of combined enzyme- and transition metal-catalyzed reactions widely applied to the DKR of secondary alcohols has also been applied to the DKR of a-hydroxy acid esters rac-1. The principle is based on the enantioselective acylation catalyzed by Pseudomonas species lipase (PS-C from Amano Ltd) using p-Cl-phenyl acetate as an acyl donor in cyclohexane combined with in situ racemization of the non-acylated enantiomer catalyzed by ruthenium compounds [7]. Under these conditions, various a-hydroxy esters of type 1 were deracemized in moderate to good yields and high enantioselectivity (Scheme 13.2). 

The nitrogen atom in a-ferrocenylalkylamines generally shows the same reaction pattern as that in other amines alkylation and acylation do not provide synthetic problems. Due to the high stability of the a-ferrocenylalkyl carbocations, ammonium salts readily lose amine and are, therefore, important synthetic intermediates. Acylation of primary amines with esters of formic acid gives the formamides, which can be dehydrated to isocyanides by the standard POClj/diisopropylamine technique (Fig. 4-16) [92]. Chiral isocyanides are obtained from chiral amines without any racemization during the reaction sequence. The isocyanides undergo normal a-addition at the isocyanide carbon, but could not be deprotonated at the a-carbon by even strong bases. This deviation from the normal reactivity of isocyanides prompted us to study the electrochemistry of these compounds, but no abnormal redox behaviour, compared with that of other ferrocene derivatives, was detected [93]. The isocyanides form chromium pentacarbonyl complexes on treatment with Cr(CO)s(THF) (Fig. 4-16) and electrochemistry demonstrated that there is no electronic interaction between the two metal centres. 

Some metallodendrimers with one or more stereogenic centers have been prepared without control of the chirality. Vogtle and Balzani [74] have tried several strategies to prepare dendrimers in which a ruthenium cation is the core of the final compound. In these compounds, the only centre of chirality is that of the metal, but as it was not controlled racemic mixtures were obtained. Controlling the stereochemistry of the starting complex would have allowed the authors to prepare a optically pure metallodendrimer. Denti, Campagna, Balzani, and their co-workers have studied polymetallic dendrimers based on bipyridine and 2,3- 7s -(2-pyridyl)pyrazine (2,3-... 

Proline is a stable, nontoxic, cyclic, secondary pyrrolidine-based amino acid with an increased pK value. Thus, proline is a chiral bidentate compound that can form catalytically active metal complexes (Melchiorre et al. 2008). Bidentate means that proline has not only one tooth but also a second one to bite and react. The greatest difference to other amino acids is a Lewis-base type catalysis that facilitates iminium and enamine-based reactions. It is especially noteworthy that cross-aldol condensations of unprotected glycoladehyde and racemic glyceralde-hyde in the presence of catalytic amounts of the Zn-(proline)2 gave a mixture of pentoses and hexoses (Kofoed et al. 2004). Again, proline seems to play the decisive role. The conditions are prebiotic the reaction proceeded in water for seven days at room temperature. It is remarkable that the pentose products contained ribose (34%), lyxose (32%), arabinose (21%), and xylose (12%) and that all are stable under the conditions. Thus, the diastereomeric and enantiomeric selection observed support the idea that amino acids have been the source of chirality for prebiotic sugar synthesis. 

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