Alcohols, racemization

One approach called enzymatic resolution, involves treating a racemic mixture with an enzyme that catalyzes the reaction of only one of the enantiomers Some of the most commonly used ones are lipases and esterases enzymes that catalyze the hydrol ysis of esters In a typical procedure one enantiomer of the acetate ester of a racemic alcohol undergoes hydrolysis and the other is left unchanged when hydrolyzed m the presence of an esterase from hog liver... 

Resolution of racemic alcohols by acylation (Table 6) is as popular as that by hydrolysis. Because of the simplicity of reactions ia nonaqueous media, acylation routes are often preferred. As ia hydrolytic reactions, selectivity of esterification may depend on the stmcture of the acylatiag agent. Whereas Candida glindracea Upase-catalyzed acylation of racemic-cx-methylhenzyl alcohol [98-85-1] (59) with butyric acid has an enantiomeric value E of 20, acylation with dodecanoic acid increases the E value to 46 (16). Not only acids but also anhydrides are used as acylatiag agents. Pseudomonasfl. Upase (PFL), for example, catalyzed acylation of a-phenethanol [98-85-1] (59) with acetic anhydride ia 42% yield and 92% selectivity (74). 

The advantage of this ketal is that unlike the THP group, only a single isomer is produced in the derivatization. Conditions used to hydrolyze the THP group can be used to hydrolyze this acetal. This group may also find applications in the resolution of racemic alcohols. 

Table 1.4 I nfluence ofthe organic solvent on the enantioselectivity ofthe protease subtilisin in the kinetic resolution ofthe racemic alcohol (10) (expressed as the enatiomeric ratio E, that is the ratio of the specificity constants of the two enatiomers, (lfcat/ M)s/...

Kim and Park subsequently reported that ruthenium precatalyst (2) racemizes alcohols svithin 30 minutes at room temperature [23]. However, when combined... 

Sheldon et al. have combined a KR catalyzed by CALB with a racemization catalyzed by a Ru(II) complex in combination with TEMPO (2,2,6,6-tetramethylpi-peridine 1-oxyl free radical) [28]. They proposed that racemization involved initial ruthenium-catalyzed oxidation of the alcohol to the corresponding ketone, with TEMPO acting as a stoichiometric oxidant. The ketone was then reduced to racemic alcohol by ruthenium hydrides, which were proposed to be formed under the reaction conditions. Under these conditions, they obtained 76% yield of enantiopure 1-phenylethanol acetate at 70° after 48 hours. 

An alternative approach to the microbial deracemization of secondary alcohols is to use two different microorganisms with complementary stereoselectivity. Fantin et al. studied the stereoinversion of several secondary alcohols using the culture supernatants of two microorganisms, namely Bacillus stearothermophilus and Yarrowia lipolytica (Figure 5.18) [31]. The authors tested three main systems for deracemization. First, they used the supernatant from cultures of B. stearothermophilus, to which they added Y. lipolytica cells and the racemic alcohols. Secondly, they used the culture supernatant of Y. lipolytica and added B. stearothermophilus cells and the racemic alcohols. Finally, they resuspended the cells of both organisms in phosphate buffer and added the racemic alcohols. The best results were obtained in the first system with 6-penten-2-ol (26) (100% ee and 100% yield). The phosphate buffer system gave... 

Figure 6.48 Favored enantiomer in lipase-catalyzed acylations of racemic alcohols containing an organometallic substituent.

Another philosophy would be the one-pot resolution of two different nucleophiles, alcohol and amine [39]. An acylated racemic alcohol reacts with a racemic amine in... 

For the deracemization of phenylethanol derivatives using G. candidum under aerobic conditions (Figure 8.41b), the (S)-specific enzyme was reversible and (R) enzyme was irreversible, so (R)-alcohol accumulated when the cell and racemic alcohols were mixed [31b,c]. Para-substituted phenylethanol derivatives gave better results than meta-substituted derivatives. Sphingomonas was used for... 

Apart from being employed solely as solvents, ILs can also be used as reagent carriers (TSlLs, task-specific ionic liquids). An efficient system that uses ILs as solvents and anchoring/acylating reagents for the CAL B-catalyzed separation of racemic alcohols is shown in Scheme 5.17 [69]. 

The TSIL used in this study has an ester moiety in its structure, which enables it to react in enzyme-catalyzed transesterification reaction. In the first part of the cycle, one of the enantiomers of the racemic alcohol is preferentially transformed into an ester of the IL-coupled acid. The other, unreacted enantiomer of the alcohol is then extracted, while the newly formed IL ester is treated with an excess of ethanol in the presence of the same enzyme. This process is accompanied by the regeneration of TSIL in the active form. The main advantage of the presented... 

Enantioenriched alcohols and amines are valuable building blocks for the synthesis of bioactive compounds. While some of them are available from nature s chiral pool , the large majority is accessible only by asymmetric synthesis or resolution of a racemic mixture. Similarly to DMAP, 64b is readily acylated by acetic anhydride to form a positively charged planar chiral acylpyridinium species [64b-Ac] (Fig. 43). The latter preferentially reacts with one enantiomer of a racemic alcohol by acyl-transfer thereby regenerating the free catalyst. For this type of reaction, the CsPhs-derivatives 64b/d have been found superior. 

Typically the reaction was carried out as follows to a mixture of lipase in the IL were added this racemic alcohol and vinyl acetate as the acyl donor. The resulting mixture was stirred at 35°C and the reaction course was monitored by GC analysis. After the reaction, ether was added to the reaction mixture to form a biphasic layer, and product acetate and unreacted alcohol were extracted with ether quantitatively. The enzyme remained in the IL phase as expected (Fig. 2). Two months later, Kim and co-workers reported similar results and Lozano and Ibora " reported other examples of lipase-catalyzed reaction in June. Further Park and Kazlauskas reported full details of lipase-catalyzed reaction in an IL solvent... 

Similar temperature effect using other racemic alcohols such as 2-hydroxymethyl-1,4-benzodioxane (4), 2-phenylpropanol (5), and 1-cyclohexylethanol (6) was also observed as shown in Fig. 8, obeying Equation 7. These results suggest that the temperature effect is widely applicable regardless of primary or secondary alcohols and an origin of lipase. 

Whereas general activities and selectivities for hydrogenations of ketones are similar to those of aldehydes, one big difference exists between the two. The hydrogenation of prochiral ketone carbonyls produces chiral carbons. Over symmetrical catalysts, racemic alcohols are formed however, over unsymmet-rical surfaces, enantioselectivity may occur. Enantioselective hydrogenations of ketones is an increasingly active research held and is covered in Chapter 3. Here we discuss that aspect of stereoselectivity associated with ring systems. 

A combination of an enzymatic kinetic resolution and an intramolecular Diels-Alder has recently been described by Kita and coworkers [23]. In the first step of this domino process, the racemic alcohols ( )-8-55 are esterified in the presence of a Candida antarctica lipase (CALB) by using the functionalized alkenyl ester 8-56 to give (R)-8-57, which in the subsequent Diels-Alder reaction led to 8-58 in high enantioselectivity of 95 and 91 % ee, respectively and 81 % yield (Scheme 8.15). In-... 

Af-(ter -Butoxycarbonyl)-3-hydroxymethylpiperidine is a building block in the synthesis of a potent tryptase inhibitor. It is produced by stereospecific esterification of the racemic alcohol with succinic anhydride [30]. The enzymatic resolution is followed up by separation of... 

Hydrogen transfer reactions are reversible, and recently this has been exploited extensively in racemization reactions in combination with kinetic resolutions of racemic alcohols. This resulted in dynamic kinetic resolutions, kinetic resolutions of 100% yield of the desired enantiopure compound [30]. The kinetic resolution is typically performed with an enzyme that converts one of the enantiomers of the racemic substrate and a hydrogen transfer catalyst that racemizes the remaining substrate (see also Scheme 20.31). Some 80 years after the first reports on transfer hydrogenations, these processes are well established in synthesis and are employed in ever-new fields of chemistry. 

Studies aimed at the elucidation of reaction mechanisms have been performed by many groups, notably by those of Backvall [28]. In test reactions, typically enantiopure 1-phenylethanol labeled with deuterium at the 1-position (8) is used. The compound is racemized with acetophenone (9) under the influence of the catalyst and after complete racemization of the alcohol, the deuterium content of the racemic alcohol is determined. If deuterium transfer proceeds from the a-carbon atom of the donor to the carbonyl carbon atom of the acceptor the deuterium is retained, but if it is transferred to the oxygen atom of the acceptor it is lost due to subsequent exchange with alcohols in the reaction mixture (Scheme 20.4). 

Scheme 20.31 The dynamic kinetic resolution of a racemic alcohol.

Various chiral derivatizing agents have been reported for the determination of enantiomer compositions. One example is determining the enantiomeric purity of alcohols using 31P NMR.28 As shown in Scheme 1-8, reagent 20 can be readily prepared and conveniently stored in tetrahydrofuran (THF) for long periods. This compound shows excellent activity toward primary, secondary, and tertiary alcohols. To evaluate the utility of compound 20 for determining enantiomer composition, some racemic alcohols were chosen and allowed to react with 20. The diastereomeric pairs of derivative 21 exhibit clear differences in their 31P NMR spectra, and the enantiomer composition of a compound can then be easily measured (Scheme 1-8). 

Methyl isobutyl ketone was reduced with (- )-menthol-LAH in ether to give the (+ )-(S)-carbinol (53) in low optical yield. Methyl neopentyl ketone was similarly reduced to the (-I- )-carbinol, although pinacolone was reduced to only racemic alcohol. Maximum stereoselectivity in the reduction of both ketones and alkenynols was obtained with a 2 1 (-)-menthol-LAH reagent. The observed low stereoselectivity was attributed mainly to insufficient interaction of the remote isopropyl substituent on the menthyl group with the substituents on... 

Terao, Y., Tsuji, K., Murata, M., Achiwa, K., Nishio, T., Watanabe, N. and Seto, K., Eacile process for enzymatic resolution of racemic alcohols. Chem. Pharm. Bull, 1989,37,1653-1655. 

Racemic alcohol (0.5 g, 2.41 mmol), CAL-B (2 g) in DIPE (20 mL) and vinylbutyrate (630 p, 4.96 mmol) were shaken at room temperature following the progress of the reaction by chiral HPLC (Chiracel OD) and 1,3,5-trimethoxybenzene as internal standard. 

Marr and coworkers have used the combination of the iridium W-heterocyclic carbene complex 100 (0.1 mol%) with the lipase Novozyme 435 to convert racemic alcohols 101 into enantiomerically enriched esters 102 with excellent yield and enantioselectivities (Scheme 25) [85]. Peris and coworkers have used complex 25... 

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