Rhodium catalysis asymmetric hydrogenation

Interest in the chemistry of the 6ji-phosphinine (phosphabenzene) system has continued, although considerably fewer papers have appeared compared to recent years. The synthesis, coordination chemistry and catalytic applications of phosphi-nines have been reviewed." New chiral bidentate phosphinine ligands (220) have been prepared and their coordination chemistry and applications in rhodium-catalysed asymmetric hydrogenations assessed." The diphosphinine (221) continues to find new applications as a ligand in homogeneous catalysis" and a new mode of coordination to a metal has been identified for the phosphinine (222), two such ligands simultaneously bridging a Mn-Mn bond." ... 

The rhodium-catalyzed asymmetric hydrogenation of prochiral enamides was investigated by Feldgus and Landis [691, 692]. They demonstrated that computational methods reproduce the ot-substituent effect in enamide hydrogenation catalysis and probe how the interaction of the enamide C=C bond and the catalyst varies with the structure of the substrate. The picture that emerges emphasizes the complex interaction of both electronic (i.e. those effects that do not depend on the size of the model system) and steric effects in controlling the stereochemistry of enamide hydrogenation reactions [691, 692]. 

Styrene, a-ethyl-asymmetric hydroformylation catalysts, platinum complexes, 6, 266 asymmetric hydrogenation catalysts, rhodium complexes, 6, 250 Styrene, a-methyl-asymmetric carbonylation catalysis by palladium complexes, 6, 293 carbonylation... 

Some general reviews on hydrogenation using transition metal complexes that have appeared within the last five years are listed (4-7), as well as general reviews on asymmetric hydrogenation (8-10) and some dealing specifically with chiral rhodium-phosphine catalysts (11-13). The topic of catalysis by supported transition metal complexes has also been well reviewed (6, 14-29), and reviews on molecular metal cluster systems, that include aspects of catalytic hydrogenations, have appeared (30-34). 

One of the success stories of transition metal catalysis is the rhodium-complex-catalyzed hydrogenation reaction. Asymmetric hydrogenation with a rhodium catalyst has been commercialized for the production of L-Dopa, and in 2001 the inventor, Knowles, together with Noyori and Sharpless, was awarded the Nobel Prize in chemistry. After the initial invention, (enantioselective) hydrogenation has been subject to intensive investigations (27). In general, hydrogenation reactions proceed... 

Weis, M., Waloch, C., Seiche, W. and Breit, B. (2006) Self-assembly of bidentate ligands for combinatorial homogeneous catalysis Asymmetric rhodium-catalyzed hydrogenation. J. Am. Chem. Soc.. 128. 4188-4189. 

Another facet of these asymmetric hydrogenations, which has been quantified by the detailed studies referred to above, are the extraordinary rates of reaction. Thus the turnover rates of several of these systems approach or exceed 102 sec-1 and therefore are comparable to many classes of enzymic catalysis. This high reactivity was important for the utilization of such catalysts for commercial operation. It should be appreciated that use of the expensive rhodium together with a very expensive ligand system presents a potential bar to commercial utility. However, the extremely high turnover rates that can be realized with these systems at low temperatures allows their use in such minute amounts that intact recycle is not required and they are merely recovered for their precious metal content. 

At about the time of Wilkinson s discovery, new schemes were developed by others for the preparation and configurational correlation of chiral phosphines (lOa-e). The combination of advances in homogeneous catalysis and chiral phosphine technology prompted research on chiral phosphine complexes. Horner et al. (11) were the first to hypothesize in print that rhodium complexes containing optically active tertiary phosphine ligands should effect the asymmetric hydrogenation of unsymmetrically substituted olefins. 

In recent years the synthesis of chiral and achiral tripodal phosphines and their application in homogeneous catalysis has been studied in more detail [2]. Enantiomerically pure tripodal ligands were synthesized from the corresponding trichloro compounds and chiral, cyclic lithio-phosphanes, e.g. 17, (Scheme 6) [21,22], Using a rhodium(I) complex of ligand 18, an enantiomeric excess of 89 % was obtained in the asymmetric hydrogenation reaction of methyl acetami-docinnamate (19). 

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