Raney chiral

The chiral catalyst was made from Raney nickel, which was prepared by addition in small portions of 3.9 g Raney nickel alloy to 40 ml water containing9 g NaOH. The mixture was kept at 100 C for 1 h, and then washed 15 times with 40 ml water. Chirality was introduced by treatment of the Raney nickel for I h at lOO C with 178 ml water adjusted to pH 3.2 with NaOH and containing 2g (S,S)-tartaric acid and 20 g NaBr. The solution was then decanted, and the modifying procedure was twice repeated. Hydrogenation over this catalyst of acetylacctone (100 atm, 100" C) in THF containing a small amount of acetic acid gave an isolated yield of chiral pentanediol of 44% (99.6% optical purity). 

Biocatalysis has emerged as an important tool for the enantioselective synthesis of chiral pharmaceutical intermediates and several review articles have been published in recent years [133-137]. For example, quinuclidinol is a common pharmacophore of neuromodulators acting on muscarinic receptors (Figure 6.50). (JJ)-Quinudidin-3-ol was prepared via Aspergillus melleus protease-mediated enantioselective hydrolysis of the racemic butyrate [54,138]. Calcium hydroxide served as a scavenger of butyric acid to prevent enzyme inhibition and the unwanted (R) enantiomer was racemized over Raney Co under hydrogen for recycling. 

In the most effective, chirally modified catalytic systems, Pt/cinchonidine and Raney-Ni/tartaric acid, the enantioselectivity was also sensitive to the method of catalyst preparation and on support properties (5, 6). 

The mechanism of 1,3-dipolar cycloaddition can be found in Ref. 63 and the references within. The reaction of nitrone with 1,2-disubstituted alkenes creates three contiguous asymmetric centers, in which the geometric relationship of the substituents of alkenes is retained. The synthetic utility of nitrone adducts is mainly due to their conversion into various important compounds. For instance, P-amino alcohols can be obtained from isoxazolidines by reduction with H2-Pd or Raney Ni with retention of configuration at the chiral center (Eq. 8.44). 

Takahashi and coworkers have used INOC for synthesis of the chiral CD rings paclitaxel, which is an antitumor agent. Synthetic strategy starting from 2-deoxy-D-ribose is demonstrated in Scheme 8.22.110 The precursor of INOC was prepared by 1,2-addition of a,(3-unsaturated ester to ketone. INOC and subsequent reductive cleavage by H2/Raney Ni afford the desired CD ring structure. 

A chirally modified Raney Ni catalyzes the hydrogenation of 1,3-diketones selectively to give the anti 1,3-diols in about 90% ee (Fig. 32.19) [67]. Natural compounds such as africanol and ngaione are synthesized via this method [68]. 

Chiral amines were always considered important targets for synthetic chemists, and attempts to prepare such compounds enantioselectively date back to quite early times. Selected milestones for the development of enantioselective catalysts for the reduction of C = N functions are listed in Table 34.1. At first, only heterogeneous hydrogenation catalysts such as Pt black, Pd/C or Raney nickel were applied. These were modified with chiral auxiliaries in the hope that some induction - that is, transfer of chirality from the auxiliary to the reactant -might occur. These efforts were undertaken on a purely empirical basis, without any understanding of what might influence the desired selectivity. Only very few substrate types were studied and, not surprisingly, enantioselectivities were... 

Chemical catalysts for transfer hydrogenation have been known for many decades [2e]. The most commonly used are heterogeneous catalysts such as Pd/C, or Raney Ni, which are able to mediate for example the reduction of alkenes by dehydrogenation of an alkane present in high concentration. Cyclohexene, cyclo-hexadiene and dihydronaphthalene are commonly used as hydrogen donors since the byproducts are aromatic and therefore more difficult to reduce. The heterogeneous reaction is useful for simple non-chiral reductions, but attempts at the enantioselective reaction have failed because the mechanism seems to occur via a radical (two-proton and two-electron) mechanism that makes it unsuitable for enantioselective reactions [2 c]. 

A diastereoselective dipolar cycloaddition of chiral nitrone 80 with alkene dipolarophiles afforded imidazo[ 1,2-3]-isoaxazole (Scheme 9). The conversion via N-O reduction of this ring system with Raney-Ni in methanol gave the corresponding pyrrolo[l,2-A imidazole in 66% yield. The structure has been confirmed by X-ray diffraction crystal stmcture analysis <2000SL967>. 

These are converted into chiral a-amino acids (5) on hydrogenation with Raney nickel. 

Chiral amines.1 These reagents also add to imines and this reaction can be used for synthesis of optically active amines. Thus RCeCl2 adds to SAMP-hydra-zones (12, 30) to form hydrazines in good yield and high diastereoselectivity. These are reduced to optically active amines by hydrogenation catalyzed by Raney nickel. The hydrazines are prone to oxidation, but can be isolated as the stable carbamates. 

One of the important conclusions of the early attempts was that it is fruitful to place the functionality near an optically active support. Already in 1958, Isoda and coworkers reported for the first time the enantioselective hydrogenation with a Raney nickel catalyst modified with optically pure amino acids. Optical yields reported at that time were from low (2.5%) to moderate (36%) values (for references see [12]). Subsequently, in 1963, Izumi and coworkers [100] initiated an extended study of the modified Raney nickel system with TA. As a result of their initial researches, this system was the first heterogeneous chiral catalyst to give high enantioselectivities in the hydrogenation of / -ketoesters (95%) [101,102],... 

The addition of a-lithiomethoxyallene 144 [55] to benzaldehyde dimethylhydra-zone 145 (Eq. 13.48) leads to a mixture of pyrroline 146 and dihydroazete 147 [56]. The cydization in this case, which takes place in the same operation as the addition to the hydrazone, follows two distinct pathways, with attack of the nitrogen atom taking place at the inner, in addition to the terminal, carbon atom of the allene. A similar reaction of 144 with SAMP-hydrazone 148 (Eq. 13.49) leads to 3-pyrroline 149 in 88% yield and excellent diastereoselectivity [57]. Cleavage of the chiral auxiliary group from 149 takes place in two steps (1, methyl chloroformate 2, Raney nickel, 50 bar, 50 °C) in 74% overall yield. When the addition of 144 to 148 is conducted in diethyl ether, cydization of the adduct does not take place. Surprisingly, the hydrazones of aliphatic aldehydes react with 144 in poor yield in THF, but react quantitatively and diastereoselectively in diethyl ether to give the (uncyclized) allenyl hydrazone products. 

TJ Blacklock, RF Shuman, JW Butcher, WE Shearin, J Budavari, VJ Grenda. Synthesis of semisynthetic dipeptides using V-carboxyanhydridcs and chiral induction on Raney nickel. A method practical for large scale. J Org Chem 53, 836, 1988. 

In contrast to phenolic hydroxyl, benzylic hydroxyl is replaced by hydrogen very easily. In catalytic hydrogenation of aromatic aldehydes, ketones, acids and esters it is sometimes difficult to prevent the easy hydrogenolysis of the benzylic alcohols which result from the reduction of the above functions. A catalyst suitable for preventing hydrogenolysis of benzylic hydroxyl is platinized charcoal [28], Other catalysts, especially palladium on charcoal [619], palladium hydride [619], nickel [43], Raney nickel [619] and copper chromite [620], promote hydrogenolysis. In the case of chiral alcohols such as 2-phenyl-2-butanol hydrogenolysis took place with inversion over platinum and palladium, and with retention over Raney nickel (optical purities 59-66%) [619]. 

The reaction sequence outlined in Scheme 12 illustrates how macrocyclic polyether-thiono diesters such as RR)-lfi6 can be prepared (184) from 0,0-dimethyl 2,6-pyridinedicaibothiolate and (RR)-S4, Potassium thiocyanate forms a 1 1 crystalline complex with (RR)-1S6 and presumably the potassium ion serves as a template for the (1 -I-1) cyclization. Raney nickel desulfurization of (/ R)-186 yields the chiral pyridino-18-crown-6 derivative RR)-191. 

Other hydrogenation methods are less chemoselective. Use of Raney nickel provides hydroxylamines in low yield °. Hydrogenation of 1-acetonaphthone oxime over rhodium-chiral phosphine catalysts was found to proceed under harsh conditions and provided low... 

As noted previously, the use of chiral sultam auxiliaries provides access to ena-ntiomerically enriched isoxazolines. These products can be elaborated to provide nonactic acid and 8-ep/-nonactic acid, the subunits of nonactin (Scheme 2.15) (141-143). Subsequent cleavage of the isoxazoline ring in the presence of Raney... 

The enantiomeric synthesis of rranj-3,4-disubstituted tetrahydrothiophenes using a sulfur ylide cycloaddition has been reported <990L1667>. The sulfur ylide derived from the action of cesium fluoride on sulfide 111 underwent an asymmetric cycloaddition with chiral a,p-unsaturated camphorsultam amide 112 giving tetrahydrothiophene 113 (80% de). The configuration was confirmed by cleavage of the chiral auxiliary followed by reductive desulfurization with Raney-Ni which gave known carboxylic acid 114. 

An excellent review of the problems of the enantioselective heterocatalytic hydrogenation of prochiral double bonds, covering the literature up to 1970, has been compiled by Izumi57). Raney nickel catalysts modified with chiral amino acids or dipeptides gave only very moderate enantiomeric excesses of between 0 and 10% in the hydrogenation of olefins, carbonyl compounds or oximes 57). Only Raney nickel modified with (S)-tyrosine furnished a higher enantiomeric excess in the products58). 

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