Racemic sulfides

High diastereoselectivity is found in oxidative amination and rearrangement of the racemic sulfide 5 to the tosylamide 683. 

An interesting observation was reported by Posner who showed that a-pyrone substituted by a sulfoxide or a sulfone reacts rapidly with vinyl ethers, giving a diastereoselective [2 + 4] cycloaddition (Scheme 45). Racemic sulfide, sulfoxide or sulfone was introduced on a-pyrone via 3-cuprio-... 

Scheme 1.16 Examples of kinetic resolution of a racemic sulfide by asymmetric oxidation, or of resolution by combination with a chiral auxiliary and subsequent diastereoselective oxidation...

Several asymmetric catalytic transformation have been reahzed via yhdic covalent catalysis, such as epoxidation, aziridination, cyclopropanation, and relevant cycH-zation reactions, of which sulfide-catalyzed reactions dominate, since sulfides show the best combination of nudeophUicity and leaving-group ability, and also due to the readily availability of non-racemic sulfides [4a-cj. 

In catalytic epoxidation reactions an alternative to the ylide generation method via alkylation/deprotonation is the transition metal-mediated carbene transfer from diazo compounds to sulfide catalysts. In 1994, Aggarwal and coworkers employed this method in the enantioselective catalytic epoxidation of aldehydes [25]. Using 20mol% of non-racemic sulfide 17 and lmol% of Rh2(OAc)4 together with the slow addition of PhCHN2, a 58% yield and 11% ee were obtained in the epoxidation of benzaldehyde (Scheme 20.10). The enantioselectivity was similar to the results obtained by Breau and Durst using preformed sulfonium salts [26]. 

Among chiral dialkylboranes, diisopinocampheylborane (8) is the most important and best-studied asymmetric hydroborating agent. It is obtained in both enantiomeric forms from naturally occurring a-pinene. Several procedures for its synthesis have been developed (151—153). The most convenient one, providing product of essentially 100% ee, involves the hydroboration of a-pinene with borane—dimethyl sulfide in tetrahydrofuran (154). Other chiral dialkylboranes derived from terpenes, eg, 2- and 3-carene (155), limonene (156), and longifolene (157,158), can also be prepared by controlled hydroboration. A more tedious approach to chiral dialkylboranes is based on the resolution of racemates. /n j -2,5-Dimethylborolane, which shows excellent enantioselectivity in the hydroboration of all principal classes of prochiral alkenes except 1,1-disubstituted terminal double bonds, has been... 

Since cbiral sulfur ylides racemize rapidly, they are generally prepared in situ from chiral sulfides and halides. The first example of asymmetric epoxidation was reported in 1989, using camphor-derived chiral sulfonium ylides with moderate yields and ee (< 41%) Since then, much effort has been made in tbe asymmetric epoxidation using sucb a strategy without a significant breakthrough. In one example, the reaction between benzaldehyde and benzyl bromide in the presence of one equivalent of camphor-derived sulfide 47 furnished epoxide 48 in high diastereoselectivity (trans cis = 96 4) with moderate enantioselectivity in the case of the trans isomer (56% ee). ... 

Modena and colleagues47 have developed use of some chiral, non-racemic terpene alcohols as directing groups for highly diastereoselective m-chloroperbenzoic oxidation of sulfides into sulfoxides. Specifically the isobornyl vinylic sulfides 8 undergo hydroxyl-directed oxidation to give a 9 1 ratio of diastereomeric sulfoxides (equation 11). 

Extensive studies of stereoselective polymerization of epoxides were carried out by Tsuruta et al.21 s. Copolymerization of a racemic mixture of propylene oxide with a diethylzinc-methanol catalyst yielded a crystalline polymer, which was resolved into optically active polymers216 217. Asymmetric selective polymerization of d-propylene oxide from a racemic mixture occurs with asymmetric catalysts such as diethyzinc- (+) bomeol218. This reaction is explained by the asymmetric adsorption of monomers onto the enantiomorphic catalyst site219. Furukawa220 compared the selectivities of asymmetric catalysts composed of diethylzinc amino acid combinations and attributed the selectivity to the bulkiness of the substituents in the amino acid. With propylene sulfide, excellent asymmetric selective polymerization was observed with a catalyst consisting of diethylzinc and a tertiary-butyl substituted a-glycol221,222. ... 

Ohtani B, Kawaguchi J, Kozawa M, Nishimoto S, Inui T, Izawa K (1995) Photocatalytic racemization of amino acids in aqueous polycrystaUine cadmium(ll) sulfide dispersions. J Chem Soc Faraday Trans 91 1103-1109... 

C-chiral racemic y-hydroxy sulfides were also resolved using PEL under kinetic resolution conditions. The products were transformed into optically active 3-(alkanesulfonyloxy)thiolane salts (Scheme 1). Similarly, 1,2-cyclic sulfite glycerol derivatives cis and trans) were resolved into enantiomers via a Pseudomonas cepacia-catalysed acylation with vinyl butyrate. The E values depended on the solvent used and varied from 2 to 26. ... 

An attempt at the enzymatic hydrolysis of racemic a-acetoxymethyl sulfoxides rac-25 gave the recovered esters in yields up to 40% and with ees up to 95%. The hydrolysis products, a-hydroxymethyl sulfoxides 26, underwent decomposition like in the case of analogous hydroxy sulfides (Equation 1) and hydroxy... 

---