TADDOL-cored dendrimers

Since the pioneering studies of asymmetric catalysis with core-functionalized dendrimers reported by Brunner (88) and Bolm (89), several noteworthy investigations have been described in this field. Some examples of the dendritic effects observed in enantioselective catalysis with dendrimers having active sites in the core were discussed in Section II, such as the catalytic experiments with TADDOL-cored dendrimers described by Seebach et al. (59) the asymmetric addition of Et2Zn to aldehydes catalyzed by core-functionalized phenylacetylene-containing dendrimers reported by Hu et al (42)-, the asymmetric hydrogenation investigations with (R)-BINAP core-functionalized dendrimers synthesized by Fan et al. (36) or the results... 

Based on this concept, Seebach et al. developed the first example of TADDOL-cored dendrimers (Figure 4.41) immobilized in a PS matrix [116]. The resultant internally dendrimer-functionalized polymer beads were loaded with Ti(OiPr)4, leading to a new class of supported Ti-TADDOLate catalysts for the enantioselective addition of diethylzinc to benzaldehyde. Compared to the conventional insoluble polymer-supported Ti-TADDOLate catalysts, these heterogeneous dendrimer catalysts gave much higher catalytic activities, with turnover rates close to those of the soluble analogues. The polymer-supported dendrimer TADDOLs were recovered by simple phase separation and reused for at least 20 runs, with similar catalytic efficiency. 

Figure 4.41 Chiral TADDOL-cored dendrimer with styryl groups located at the periphery.

During the past two decades the homogeneous and heterogeneous catalytic enan-hoselective addition of organozinc compounds to aldehydes has attracted much attention because of its potential in the preparation of optically active secondary alcohols [69]. Chiral amino alcohols (such as prolinol) and titanium complexes of chiral diols (such as TADDOL and BINOL) have proved to be very effective chiral catalysts for such reactions. The important early examples included Bolm s flexible chiral pyridyl alcohol-cored dendrimers [70], Seebach s chiral TADDOL-cored Frechet-type dendrimers [28], Yoshida s BINOL-cored Frechet-type dendrimers [71] and Pu s structurally rigid and optically active BlNOL-functionalized dendrimers [72]. All of these dendrimers were used successfully in the asymmetric addition of diethylzinc (or allyltributylstannane) to aldehydes. 

In our group, dendrimers carrying the catalytically active part either on the periphery or in the core were investigated. In both cases a,a,a, a -fetraaryl-l,3-dioxolane-4,5-dimethanoZs (TADDOLs) have been employed as ligands in chiral... 

Brunner s concept of attaching dendritic wedges to a catalytically active metal complex represented the first example of asymmetric catalysis with metal complex fragments located at the core of a dendritic structure [5,6]. Important early examples of catalysts in core positions were Seebach s TAD-DOL systems (TADDOL = 2,2-dimethyl-a,a,a/,a/-tetraphenyl-l,3-dioxolane-4,5-dimethanol) [38,39]. In general, the catalytic performance of such systems was either unchanged with respect to the simple mononuclear reference system or significantly lower. In no case has the potential analogy of this core fixation and the existence of efficient reactive pockets in enzymes been vindicated. This may be due to the absence of defined secondary structures in the dendrimers that have been employed to date. 

Convergent dendrimers, with their versatile three-dimensional scaffold, may be tailored to mimic, perhaps crudely, some elements of enzymatic structures. Numerous catalytic moieties, including manganese porphyrins,253,254 bis(oxazoline) copper complexes,304 305 tertiary amines,306 binaphthol titanium complexes,285 307 titanium taddolates,292,308 thiazolio-cyclophanes,309 and fullerene-bound bisoxazoline copper complexes,310 have been incorporated at the core of dendritic molecules to determine the effect of dendritic encapsulation on their catalytic activity. 

Brunner s concept (dendrizyme) of attaching dendrihc chiral wedges to a catalytically achve achiral metal complex represents the first example of asymmetric catalysis using a core-funchonalized dendrimer catalyst [21]. In view of the extremely poor asymmetric induction effected by the chiral dendritic shucture, the bulk of the attenhon has been focused on the immobilizahon of the well-established chiral hgands and/or their metal complexes into an achiral dendrimer core. The important early examples included TADDOL-centered chiral dendrimers, which were reported by Seebach et al. in 1999 [28]. In this section, we ahempt to summarize the recently reported chiral core-funchonalized dendrimers with special emphasis on their applications in asymmetric synthesis. 

Styryl-terminated Frechet-type dendrimers have been introduced as novel polymer crosslinkers by Seebach et al. [43-45]. They are constituted of four to 16 peripheral styryl units attached to aryl end branches of dendritic TADDOL, BINOL or Salen ligands and were copolymerised with styrene by suspension polymerisation. The catalytic performance of the polymer-bound catalyst was identical to that of the homogeneous analogues however, the supported catalysts could be used in many consecutive catalytic runs with only small loss in catalytic activity. A major drawback of fixing the catalytic unit in the core of the crosslinker is the poor loading capacity of the final polymer (0.13-0.20 mmol g 0> especially when high amounts of catalysts (10-20 mol%) are needed. 

The field of catalytic metallodendrimers has seen many advances, particularly in enantioselective catalysis. " Thanks to the early work of Seebach and coworkers, the synthesis of core-functionalised TADDOL dendrimers 40 has been achieved by using four Frechet dendrons (Figure 7.2). These dendrimers were used as ligands in the synthesis of titanium TADDOLates, which were evaluated as catalysts in the asymmetric addition of diethylzinc to benzaldehyde. In a general manner, the good stereoselectivities (89-97% enantiomeric excesses) detected were found to be comparable to those observed with the monomeric TADDOL ligand (98% enantiomeric excess). No attempt to recycle the catalyst or the ligand was mentioned by the authors. 

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