Rhodium-phosphine catalysts asymmetric hydrogenation

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). 

Following Wilkinson s discovery of [RhCl(PPh3)3] as an homogeneous hydrogenation catalyst for unhindered alkenes [14b, 35], and the development of methods to prepare chiral phosphines by Mislow [36] and Horner [37], Knowles [38] and Horner [15, 39] each showed that, with the use of optically active tertiary phosphines as ligands in complexes of rhodium, the enantioselective asymmetric hydrogenation of prochiral C=C double bonds is possible (Scheme 1.8). 

The solution to this problem has been to attach these catalysts to polymer supports. The ideal polymer-bound catalyst must satisfy a formidable list of requirements. It should be easily prepared from low cost materials. The support must be compatible with the solvent system employed, and be chemically and thermally stable under the reaction conditions. The catalyst should show minimal losses in reaction rate or selectivity when bound to the support, and should be able to be recycled many times without loss of activity. Finally, the interactions between the catalytic site and the support must be either negligible or beneficial. The development of polymer supported rhodium-phosphine catalysts for the asymmetric hydrogenation of amino acid precursors illustrates the incremental process which has led to supports which approach the ideal support. 

Besides the major thrust using chiral phosphine catalysts, other chiral ligands have been used with rhodium and other metals for asymmetric hydrogenation. 

The discovery of Wilkinson complex, RhCl[P(C6H5)3]3, acting as an effective catalyst for hydrogenation of olefins opened the door for developing asymmetric reaction catalyzed by rhodium complexes with a chiral phosphine ligand. 

An efficient asymmetric hydrogenation of a-acetamidocin-namic acids has been achieved using a rhodium-chiral phosphine catalyst. This paper describes the preparation of the catalyst and the hydrogenation procedure as well as studies on structure vs. activity. 

The cationic rhodium catalysts are useful for asymmetric hydrogenation.152 In this variant, the presence of a chiral phosphine leads to differences in the rates of H2 addition to the two faces of a prochiral alkene. Where the alkene has groups such as C02Me suitably placed to bind to the metal, the selectivity can become very great enantiomeric excesses of the product over its enantiomer can reach 95-98% (equation 67). The mechanism has recently been elucidated by Halpern.153... 

It has been reported that the chiral NMR shift reagent Eu(DPPM), represented by structure 19, catalyzes the Mukaiyama-type aldol condensation of a ketene silyl acetal with enantiose-lectivity of up to 48% ee (Scheme 8B1.13) [29-32]. The chiral alkoxyaluminum complex 20 [33] and the rhodium-phosphine complex 21 [34] under hydrogen atmosphere are also used in the asymmetric aldol reaction of ketene silyl acetals (Scheme 8BI. 14), although the catalyst TON is quite low for the former complex. 

In order to achieve asymmetric hydrogenation, we need to incorporate a chiral phosphine that is capable of distinguishing between the enantiotopic faces of the prochiral olefin, so that one of these faces is coordinated preferentially to the rhodium atom. (It should be noted that the attachment of a prochiral olefin to a metal atom produces a chiral system irrespective of what else is attached to the metal.) Thus the catalyst solution will contain two diastereomeric species, each having the same phosphine chirality but with opposite chiralities of the metal olefin center. Such an equilibrium is shown as Kx in Figure 3. 

Fig. 7.2. The chiral (phosphine)rhodium(I) catalyst used for asymmetric catalytic hydrogenation of an amino acid precursor.

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