Sulfoxide ester, resolution

Scheme 2.64 Resolution of sulfoxide esters by Pseudomonas sp. lipase...

Cyclodextrins, toroidal molecules composed of 6, 7 and 8 D-glucose units, are now commercially available at reasonable cost. They form inclusion compounds with a variety of molecules and often differentially include sulfoxide enantiomers29,30. This property has been used to partially resolve some benzyl alkyl, phenyl alkyl and p-tolyl alkyl sulfoxides. The enantiomeric purities after one inclusion process ranged from 1.1 % for t-butyl p-tolyl sulfoxide to 14.5% for benzyl r-butyl sulfoxide. Repeating the process on methyl p-tolyl sulfoxide (10) increased its enantiomeric purity from 8.1% to 11.4% four recrystallizations raised the value to 71.5%. The use of cyclodextrins in asymmetric oxidations is discussed in Section II.C.l and in the resolution of sulfmate esters in Section II.B.l. 

The hydrolysis of seven alkyl arenesulfinylalkanoates by the bacterium Corynebacterium equi IFO 3730 studied by Ohta and coworkers34 are recent examples of kinetic resolutions which give sulfoxides of high enantiomeric purity and in reasonable yield. Compounds 16a, 16b and 16c were recovered in 30 to 43% yield and in 90 to 97% e.e. The S enantiomers underwent hydrolysis more rapidly than the R isomers. Sulfoxide 17 was isolated in 22% yield and 96% e.e., but sulfoxide 18 was completely metabolized. Esters other than methyl gave inferior results. The acids formed upon hydrolysis, although detected, were for the most part further metabolized by the bacterium. 

Enzyme-mediated hydrolysis of some racemic co-arenesulfinylalkanoic methyl esters, ArSO(CH2) COOMe, using Corynebacterium equi has led to a kinetic resolution in which the unreacted sulfinyl esters are enriched in one enantiomer at the sulfoxide center49. The enantiomeric purity of unreacted sulfinyl acetates and propionate ranges from 90 to 97%. 

Mikolajczyk and coworkers have summarized other methods which lead to the desired sulfmate esters These are asymmetric oxidation of sulfenamides, kinetic resolution of racemic sulfmates in transesterification with chiral alcohols, kinetic resolution of racemic sulfinates upon treatment with chiral Grignard reagents, optical resolution via cyclodextrin complexes, and esterification of sulfinyl chlorides with chiral alcohols in the presence of optically active amines. None of these methods is very satisfactory since the esters produced are of low enantiomeric purity. However, the reaction of dialkyl sulfites (33) with t-butylmagnesium chloride in the presence of quinine gave the corresponding methyl, ethyl, n-propyl, isopropyl and n-butyl 2,2-dimethylpropane-l-yl sulfinates (34) of 43 to 73% enantiomeric purity in 50 to 84% yield. This made available sulfinate esters for the synthesis of t-butyl sulfoxides (35). 

The stereospecific conversion of sulfinates into sulfoxides of known chirality has been applied as a general method for determining the absolute configuration of a wide range of optically active sulfinic esters. For example, the absolute configurations of a series of alkyl alkanesulfinates obtained by asymmetric synthesis (107) or resolution via 3-cyclodextrin inclusion complexes (106) were determined by this method. 

Sulfinate esters, like sulfoxides, are chiral at sulfur and, if the ester is formed from a chiral alcohol i (menthol is best), they can be separated into two diastereoisomers by crystallization—this is really a j resolution of the type you first met in Chapter 16. Attack by the Grignard reagent takes place with i inversion of configuration at sulfur, giving a single enantiomer of the sulfoxide. i... 

Hua has used the products of Pauson-Khand cycloadditions for syntheses of optically active pental-enene and racemic pentalenolactone E methyl ester. The racemic ketone in the first case was converted to the necessary optically active intermediate by kinetic resolution via 1,4-addition of an optically active allyl sulfoxide anion. These represented the first synthesis of natural products containing the angularly fused triquinane skeleton from bicyclic Pauson-Khand products (equation 53 and Scheme 20). ... 

Kinetic resolutions. A chiral alcohol is obtained on. selective removal of one enantiomer by acetylation using a chiral analog 1 of DMAP, or by oxidation based on hydrogen transfer to acetone mediated by a Ru complex 2. Benzylic secondary alcohols are resolved by selective pivaloylation with optically activeA-pivaloyl-4-t-butylthiazolidine-2-thione. A kinetic resolution of sulfoxides is based on asymmetric oxidation with (i-PrO)4Ti-cumyl hydroperoxide in the presence of a tartrate ester. Kinetic resolution of 1,3-diarylallenes is realized by selective oxidation with NaClO catalyzed by a chiral (salen)manganese(III) complex, whereas asymmetric hydrolysis of terminal epoxides with the aid of a chiral (salen)cobalt(II) catalyst solves the problem of their accessibility. 

Titanium-pillared montmorillonites (Ti-PILC) modified with tartrates were described as heterogeneous Sharpless epoxidation catalysts [33] as well as for the oxidation of aromatic sulfides [34]. Metal oxides modified with histamine showed modest efficiencies for the kinetic resolution of activated amino acid esters (kj /k5 2) [35]. Silica or alumina treated with diethylaluminium chloride and menthol catalyzed the Diels-Alder reaction between cylopentadiene and methacrolein with modest enantioselectivities of up to 31% ee [36]. ZeoHte HY, modified with chiral sulfoxides had remarkable selectivities for the kinetic resolution of 2-butanol (k /kj =39) but unfortunately the catalyst is not very stable... 

The presence of the menthyl group in the ester moiety allows the easy resolution of chiral sulfoxides by fractional crystallization, but does not influence the stereochemical outcome of the reaction. Diastereoselectivity is primarily due to the sulfoxide chirality and cycloaddition of the corresponding sulfones shows low or even lack of diastereoselectivity33. The results of the noncatalyzed [4 + 2] cycloaddition of cyclopentadiene (2), or furan (10) to (Z)- and ( )-3-sulfmyl-2-propenoic acids 9 and esters 15 are shown in Tables 2 and 3. 

Resolutions. The following types of substrates have been resolved via lipase-mediated enantioselective esterification malic and aspartic esters, 3-hydroxyalken-l-yl p-tolyl sulfoxides, P-hydroxy sulfoxides." A practical method involves sequential transacetylation and sulfation, followed by extraction and treatment of the aqueous layer with methanolic HCl to recover the alcohol (the organic layer yields the acetate). The use of 1-ethoxyvinyl acetate as acetyl donor in these reactions has been proposed."... 

Scheme 7. Examples for Enantiomer Separations by Crystallization with TADDOLs. Besides the original TADDOL (from tartrate acetonide and PhMgX), Toda et al. [44] have often used the cyclopentanone- and cyclohexanone-derived analogs. The dynamic resolution (resolution with in-situ recychng) of 2-(2-methoxyethyl)cyclohexanone was reported by Tsunoda et al. The resolved compounds shown here are only a small selection from a large number of successful resolutions, which include alcohols, ethers, oxiranes, ketones, esters, lactones, anhydrides, imides, amines, aziridines, cyanohydrins, and sulfoxides. The yields given refer to the amount of guest compound isolated in the procedure given. Since we are not dealing with reactions (for which we use % es to indicate enantioselectivity with which the major enantiomer is formed), we use % ep (enantiomeric purity of the enantiomer isolated from the inclusion...

Dialkyl arenesulfinylmethanephosphonates are available by S-oxidation of the corresponding dialkyl arenesulfenylmethanephosphonates or by reaction of anions derived from dialkyl methanephosphonates with sulfinate esters. With regard to the synthesis of optically active a,P-unsaturated sulfoxides, the former method may not be applied in the absence of a reliable, highly enantioselective 5-oxidation procedure without recourse to resolution methods, while the latter method suffers from the relatively polar nature of dialkyl arenesulfinylmethanephosphonates, which renders their chromatographic separation tedious and costly. 

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