Ruthenium complexes chirality

Asymmetric epoxidation of olefins with ruthenium catalysts based either on chiral porphyrins or on pyridine-2,6-bisoxazoline (pybox) ligands has been reported (Scheme 6.21). Berkessel et al. reported that catalysts 27 and 28 were efficient catalysts for the enantioselective epoxidation of aryl-substituted olefins (Table 6.10) [139]. Enantioselectivities of up to 83% were obtained in the epoxidation of 1,2-dihydronaphthalene with catalyst 28 and 2,6-DCPNO. Simple olefins such as oct-l-ene reacted poorly and gave epoxides with low enantioselectivity. The use of pybox ligands in ruthenium-catalyzed asymmetric epoxidations was first reported by Nishiyama et al., who used catalyst 30 in combination with iodosyl benzene, bisacetoxyiodo benzene [PhI(OAc)2], or TBHP for the oxidation of trons-stilbene [140], In their best result, with PhI(OAc)2 as oxidant, they obtained trons-stilbene oxide in 80% yield and with 63% ee. More recently, Beller and coworkers have reexamined this catalytic system, finding that asymmetric epoxidations could be perfonned with ruthenium catalysts 29 and 30 and 30% aqueous hydrogen peroxide (Table 6.11) [141]. Development of the pybox ligand provided ruthenium complex 31, which turned out to be the most efficient catalyst for asymmetric... 

Zhang et al. [49] prepared a chiral ruthenium complex coordinated by a pyridine-bis(imine) ligand (structure 43 in Scheme 21). 

Cornejo et al. [65] reported the first immobihzation of pyridine-bis(oxa-zoline) chiral hgands and the use of the corresponding solid ruthenium complex in the model cyclopropanation test. They synthesized vinyl-PyBOx, the vinyl functionahty being introduced in the fourth position of the pyridine ring. This monomer was further homo- or copolymerized in the presence of styrene and divinylbenzene. The corresponding ruthenium catalysts proved... 

Initial studies indicated that this ruthenium complex is an effective chiral catalyst for enantioselective metathesis. For example, desymmetrization of the anhydride 68 (Scheme 43) in the presence of 10 mol % of 65 and 10... 

There are more examples of a second type in which the chirality of the metal center is the result of the coordination of polydentate ligands. The easiest case is that of octahedral complexes with at least two achiral bidentate ligands coordinated to the metal ion. The prototype complex with chirality exclusively at the metal site is the octahedral tris-diimine ruthenium complex [Ru(diimine)3 with diimine = bipyridine or phenanthroline. As shown in Fig. 2 such a complex can exist in two enantiomeric forms named A and A [6,7]. The bidentate ligands are achiral and the stereoisomery results from the hehcal chirality of the coordination and the propeller shape of the complex. The absolute configuration is related to the handness of the hehx formed by the hgands when rotated... 

In 2008, Grisi et al. reported three ruthenium complexes 65-67 bearing chiral, symmetrical monodentate NHC ligands with two iV-(S)-phenylethyl side chains [74] (Fig. 3.26). Three different types of backbones were incorporated into the AT-heterocyclic moiety of the ligands. When achiral triene 57 was treated with catalysts 65-67 under identical reaction conditions, a dramatic difference was observed. As expected, the absence of backbone chirality in complex 65 makes it completely inefficient for inducing enantioselectivity in the formation of 58. Similarly, the mismatched chiral backbone framework of complex 66 was not able to promote asymmetric RCM of 57. In contrast, appreciable albeit low selectivity (33% ee) was observed when the backbone possessed anti stereochemistry. 

The first example of an asymmetric reduction of C=N bonds proceeding via DKR was reported in 2005 by Lassaletta et al. In this process, the transfer hydrogenation of 2-substituted bicyclic and monocyclic ketimines could be accomplished via DKR by using a HCO2H/TEA mixture as the hydrogen source and a chiral ruthenium complex including TsDPEN ligand,... 

Manufacture of ruthenium precatalysts for asymmetric hydrogenation. The technology in-licensed from the JST for the asymmetric reduction of ketones originally employed BINAP as the diphosphine and an expensive diamine, DAIPEN." Owing to the presence of several patents surrounding ruthenium complexes of BINAP and Xylyl-BINAP, [HexaPHEMP-RuCl2-diamine] and [PhanePHOS-RuCl2-diamine] were introduced as alternative catalyst systems in which a cheaper diamine is used. Compared to the BINAP-based systems both of these can offer superior performance in terms of activity and selectivity and have been used in commercial manufacture of chiral alcohols on multi-100 Kg scales. 

Fig. 5.3. (a) View of (S)-BINAP-ruthenium complex showing the chiral environment, (b) Relationship of reactant to chiral environment showing preferred orientation. The binaphthyl rings are omitted for clarity. Adapted from J. 

The use of chiral ruthenium catalysts can hydrogenate ketones asymmetrically in water. The introduction of surfactants into a water-soluble Ru(II)-catalyzed asymmetric transfer hydrogenation of ketones led to an increase of the catalytic activity and reusability compared to the catalytic systems without surfactants.8 Water-soluble chiral ruthenium complexes with a (i-cyclodextrin unit can catalyze the reduction of aliphatic ketones with high enantiomeric excess and in good-to-excellent yields in the presence of sodium formate (Eq. 8.3).9 The high level of enantioselectivity observed was attributed to the preorganization of the substrates in the hydrophobic cavity of (t-cyclodextrin. 

These reports sparked off an extensive study of metalloporphyrin-catalyzed asymmetric epoxidation, and various optically active porphyrin ligands have been synthesized. Although porphyrin ligands can make complexes with many metal ions, mainly iron, manganese, and ruthenium complexes have been examined as the epoxidation catalysts. These chiral metallopor-phyrins are classified into four groups, on the basis of the shape and the location of the chiral auxiliary. Class 1 are C2-symmetric metalloporphyrins bearing the chiral auxiliary at the... 

The isomerization of the dioxepins83 was investigated using some chiral ruthenium complexes, and these catalysts gave moderate (up to 61% ee) enantioselectivities (Equation (24)).84... 

Carpentier and coworkers studied the asymmetric transfer hydrogenation of /f-keloeslers using chiral ruthenium complexes prepared from [(// -p-cyrriene)-RuC12]2 and chiral aminoalcohols based on norephedrine. During this study, these authors became aware of substrate inhibition when ketoesters carrying 4-halo-substituents were used. It transpired that this was caused by formation of a complex between the substrate and the catalyst [28]. 

Other amino alcohols have also been used as chiral ligands in asymmetric catalytic hydrogen transfer. Scheme 6-54 depicts another example. Ruthenium complex bearing 2-azanorbornyl methanol was used as the chiral ligand, and the corresponding secondary alcohols were obtained in excellent ee.116... 

Saburi et al.84 found that ruthenium complexes containing chiral ligand can be used to catalyze the asymmetric hydrogenation of 2-fluoro-2-alkenoic acid (Z)- or (/ )- 00. providing the corresponding product 101 with good enantio-selectivity (Scheme 8-39 and Table 8-2). 

The ruthenium complex dimer (3.06 mg, 0.25 mol%) and the chiral ligand (5.08 mg, 2 mol%) were then weighed into the round-bottomed flask and any moisture was azcotropically removed via evaporation of benzene (5x5 mL) at reduced pressure. 

Ruthenium complexes are capable of catalyzing halogen atom transfer reactions to olefins. This has been illustrated in the enantioselective atom transfer reactions of alkane and arene-sulfonyl chlorides and bro-motrichloromethanes to olefins using chiral ruthenium complexes. Moderate ee s up to 40% can be achieved for these transformations [74-77]. These specific reactions are believed to follow a radical redox transfer chain process. 

Cyclizations of dihydroxystilbene 256 using 4 mol % of chiral ruthenium complexes under photolytic conditions were investigated by Katsuki et al. (Scheme 65) [167]. Coordination of alcohols/phenols to Ru(IV) species generates a cation radical with concomitant reduction of metal to Ru(III). Cycli-zation of this oxygen radical followed by another cyclization provides the product 257. Catalyst 259 provided 81% ee of the product in chlorobenzene solvent. Optimization of the solvent polarity led to a mixture of toluene and f-butanol in 2 3 ratio as the ideal solvent. Substituents on the phenyl rings led to a decrease in selectivity. Low yields were due to the by-product 258. 

Nonorganic and organometallic catalysts are also used to channel the reactions toward the chiral synthesis pathway. The drug called levodopa, (5)-3,4-dihydroxyalanine, is an effective drug against Parkinson s disease. It is stereoselectively manufactured using catalysts such as rhodium or ruthenium complexes. 

Fig. 17. Noyori s ATH system using ruthenium complexes of chiral 1,2-amino alcohols 41 and monotosylated 1,2-diamines 42, respectively.

To improve the rate of reduction the amino alcohol ligand of the ruthenium complexes was exchanged for monotosylated 1,2-diamine ligands. For exploratory experiments AT-tosylethane-1,2-diamine was prepared hy monotosylation of ethane-1,2-diamine and attached to the primary face of P-CD yielding 80. With P-CD as the only chiral unit the ruthenium complex of 80 could reduce aromatic and aliphatic standard ketones 63 and 69 in 91% 5deld, 25% ee (S) and 68% 5deld, 58% ee, respectively, within only 4h under standard conditions (Fig. 24). 

---