Solid salen ligands

Fig. 8 Symmetrical chiral salen ligands used in solid phase immobilization...

Synthesis of complex 1. The pentadentate salen catalyst 1 was synthesized as described (9). In short, the tosylated 2-[2-(2-methoxyethoxy)-ethoxy]-ethanol 2 (10) was reacted with 2,4-dihydroxybenzaldehyde 3 to yield 4-alkoxy salicylaldehyde 4 after chromatographic purification (eq. 1). Subsequent condensation of 4 with 1,3-diaminopropanol yielded water-soluble salen ligand 5 in sufficient purity and 89% yield (11). The formation of an azomethine bond is indicated by a shift of the NMR signal for the carbonyl carbon from 194.4 ppm in aldehyde 4 to 166.4 ppm for the imino carbon in 5. The pentadentate ligand 5 was then treated with copper(ll) acetate in methanol to obtain the dinuclear copper(ll) complex 1 as a green solid (eq. 2) (11). 

Tridentate salen ligands (10) derived from 1 have given excellent results in the enantiocontrol of the hetero Diels-Alder addition reaction of dienes with aldehydes (eq 7) and in the asymmetric additions of TMS-azide to mc5o-epoxide and trimethylsilyl cyanide to benzaldehyde (up to 85% ee). Phosphino-oxazolines derived from 1 have been employed for the asymmetric control of palladium-catalyzed allylic substitution reactions products of 70-90% ee were obtained. Photolysis of crystalline adducts of enantiomerically pure 1 with prochiral alcohols results in asymmetric inductions of up to 79% in a rare example of a solid-state enantioselective reaction. ... 

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