The Chiral Auxiliary

Varying the ratio between Ti(0-iPr)4 and the diethyl tartrate auxiliary using EtOAc as solvent from 1 1 to 1 4 did not have any impact on the ee value, but the kinetics of the reaction changed tremendously. This means that in the former case (at 20 °C) only 2.5% of the starting prochiral sulfide remains after 140 min, whereas in the latter this figure is 24.5%. Furthermore, comparing different chiral diols (e.g., other tartrates, (S)-l,2,4-butanetriol, 2,3-O-isopropylidene-D-threitol) actually showed that a range of structurally rather dissimilar auxiliaries could also be used. Because of market availability and other process-dependent considerations diethyl tartrate was finally chosen for the current application. 

The crucial importance of water was already evident in the early Kagan investigations and is well documented in the literature [18], The profound influence of this component was further corroborated in our case and depending on the specific design of the reaction system (type of solvent, catalyst loading, ratio Ti/auxiliary) the best results obtained were somewhere in the range between 0.3 and 1.0 equiv. H20/equiv. Ti. 

---

Cleavage of the chiral auxiliary is effected in a three-step procedure commencing with quatemization of the nitrogen with methyl fluorosulfonate, methyl trlfluoromethanesulfonate, or trimethyloxonium tetrafluoroborate. Reduction of the corresponding iminium salt 19 with NaBH4 and acidic hydrolysis of the resulting product affords substituted aldehyde 5 without epimerization of either stereocenter. 

Asymmetric Diels-Alder reactions using a dienophile containing a chiral auxiliary were developed more than 20 years ago. Although the auxiliary-based Diels-Alder reaction is still important, it has two drawbacks - additional steps are necessary, first to introduce the chiral auxiliary into the starting material, and then to remove it after the reaction. At least an equimolar amount of the chiral auxiliary is, moreover, necessary. After the discovery that Lewis acids catalyze the Diels-Alder reaction, the introduction of chirality into such catalysts has been investigated. The Diels-Alder reaction utilizing a chiral Lewis acid is truly a practical synthetic transformation, not only because the products obtained are synthetically useful, but also because a catalytic amount of the chiral component can, in theory, produce a huge amount of the chiral product. 

The powerful influence of an oxygen substituent on the rate and stereoselectivity of cyclopropanation augured well for the development of a chiral auxiliary based approach to asymmetric synthesis [54]. The design of the chiral auxiliary would take into account ... 

Further examination of the chiral ketals reveals that the lone pairs available for reagent coordination are oriented either in a syw or an anti relationship to the neighboring methyl substituents. The influence of the chiral auxiliary over the reaction is now clear. If zinc coordination must occur proximal to the double bond. 

The conceptual complement to the chiral modification of the catalyst is the temporary modification of the substrate. Unlike the chiral auxiliary strategy, temporary substrate modification has greater latitude in introducing the kind of groups... 

From the data available it is cleat that diasteteoselective reactions of type ll) are very useful for control over absolute stereochemistry, hut they requite stoichiometric amounts of the chiral auxiliary. Reactions of type 13), on the other hand, have so far... 

Most asymmetric induction processes with Chital auxiliaries involve a stereo-differentiating reaction that affords one diastereomet as the primary product To obtain the desired enantiomer, the Chiral auxiliary must be removed Highly dia-stereoselective reactions between otganocoppet reagents and allylic substrates with... 

Scheme 5 details the asymmetric synthesis of dimethylhydrazone 14. The synthesis of this fragment commences with an Evans asymmetric aldol condensation between the boron enolate derived from 21 and trans-2-pentenal (20). Syn aldol adduct 29 is obtained in diastereomerically pure form through a process which defines both the relative and absolute stereochemistry of the newly generated stereogenic centers at carbons 29 and 30 (92 % yield). After reductive removal of the chiral auxiliary, selective silylation of the primary alcohol furnishes 30 in 71 % overall yield. The method employed to achieve the reduction of the C-28 carbonyl is interesting and worthy of comment. The reaction between tri-n-butylbor-... 

An alternative approach is to have the chiral auxiliary on the enolate. Sweeney has reported the addition of bromoacyl sultam 102 to phosphonyl imines 103, which afforded the cis- or trans-aziridines with high levels of diastereoselectivity depending on the imine substituent (Scheme 1.30) [55]. 

Solladie-Cavallo has recently reported a two-step asymmetric synthesis of dis-ubstituted N-tosylaziridines from (R,R,R,Ss)-(-)-sulfonium salt 2 (derived from Eliel s oxathiane see Section 1.2.1.1) and N-tosyl imines with use of phosphazine base (EtP2) to generate the ylide (Scheme 1.42) [67], Although the diastereoselectiv-ity was highly substrate-dependent, the enantioselectivities obtained were very high (98.7-99.9%). The chiral auxiliary, although used in stoichiometric quantities, could be isolated and reused, but the practicality and scope of this procedure is limited by the use of the strong - as well as expensive and sensitive - phospha-zene base. 

With chiral auxiliaries1,41 a remote chiral moiety is temporarily introduced into the substrate in order to direct the nucleophilic addition diastereoselectively. The chiral auxiliary can be removed from the initial addition product with complete conservation of the chirality of the desired product and also of the chiral auxiliary. The recovered chiral auxiliary can then be reused in further reactions. Therefore, chiral auxiliaries are used to chiralize an a priori achiral carbonyl substrate by the introduction of a covalently bound, but nevertheless easily removable, chiral source. 

Cleavage of the chiral auxiliary is carried out by exhaustive methylation. followed by hydrolysis, which leads to x-methoxy aldehydes 7 that can be further oxidized to the corresponding oc-methoxy acids. 

Cleavage of the oxathiane moiety can be carried out with iV-chlorosuccinimide/silver nitrate and leads to the a-hydroxy aldehyde 21 along with a diastereomeric mixture of sultines 20. The sultines can be reduced to the hydroxy thiol 22 which can be reconverted to the chiral auxiliary 16 in ail overall recovery of about 70%39. 

While the mechanism of the ammonium salt catalyzed alkylation is unclear, in polar solvents the enantioselectivity of the addition of dialkylzincs to aldehydes generally drops considerably, probably due to uncatalyzed product formation or complexation of the zinc reagent with the polar solvent rather than with the chiral auxiliary. 

In most of these examples, the chiral auxiliary is introduced to the allylic reagent at a very late stage in the synthesis of the precursor, thus providing a facile access. It is obvious that in most examples, the central metal atom is kept from becoming stereogenic, and in addition, a C2-symmet-ric cation is desirable, in order to minimize the possible number of competing transition states. 

Only few successful reports utilizing the chiral auxiliary approach for the a-hydroxyalkylation of allyllic anions have been made. 

The reaction of methyl 4-formyl-2-mcthylpentanoate and the chiral (Z)-2-butenylboronate clearly shows 52b-103, however, that the chiral auxiliary is not sufficiently enantioselective to increase the diastereoselectivity to >90% in either the matched [( + )-auxiliary] or mismatched [(—)-auxiliary] case. This underscores the requirement that highly enantioselective chiral reagents be utilized in double asymmetric reactions. 

Enantiomerically pure (2, 35)-3-hydroxy-2,4-dimethylpentanoic acid is liberated by a Bacycr-Villigcr oxidation which occurs in a nonrcgiosclcctivc manner. Furthermore, the chiral auxiliary information is lost in the final step ( immolative method )41. 

Desilylation of the major jjw-isomer, followed by oxidative cleavage with sodium metaperiodate, liberates the 3-hydroxy-2-methyl carboxylic acids. The immolative character of this method, i.e., the destruction of the chiral auxiliary reagent in the final glycol cleavage, is a drawback. 

The chiral auxiliary group is removed in an immolative" way by Bacycr-Villiger oxidation of the major product, which is available as the pure diastereomer by HPLC in a 36% yield41. 

Compared to the lithium enolates of l and 5, the higher stereoselectivity obtained by the Mukaiyama variation is, in general, accompanied by reduced chemical yields. The chiral alcoholic moieties of the esters 3 and 7 can be removed either by reduction with lithium aluminum hydride (after protection of the earbinol group) or by aqueous alkaline hydrolysis with lithium hydroxide to afford the corresponding carboxylic acid. In both cases, the chiral auxiliary reagent can be recovered. 

Alkaline hydrolysis of the crude adduct formed with benzaldehyde, followed by treatment with diazomethane and column chromatography, affords methyl (2R,3S)-3-hydroxy-2-methyl-3-phenylpropanoate in 96% ee. Reduction of the crude products formed in the reactions with 2-inethylpropanal and 2,2-dimethylpropanal leads to the corresponding 1,3-diols with >96% ee. In both the hydrolysis and the reduction procedures, the chiral auxiliary reagent, 1,1,2-triphenyl-1,2-ethanediol, can be recovered and reused72. 

In another approach, a glucose-derived titanium enolate is used in order to accomplish stereoselective aldol additions. Again the chiral information lies in the metallic portion of the enolate. Thus, the lithiated /m-butyl acetate is transmetalated with chloro(cyclopentadienyl)bis(l,2 5,6-di-0-isopropylidene- -D-glucofuranos-3-0-yl)titanium (see Section I.3.4.2.2.I. and 1.3.4.2.2.2.). The titanium enolate 5 is reacted in situ with aldehydes to provide, after hydrolysis, /i-hydroxy-carboxylic acids with 90 95% ee and the chiral auxiliary reagent can be recovered76. 

After addition reactions, the chiral auxiliary is recovered in an unracemized state as the diol, from hydrolysis of the adducts 6/7. 

Alkaline hydrolysis of the adducts 6 and 7, which is fairly mild in the case of the imide adducts, liberates 3-hydroxycarboxylic acids 8 or ent-8 and simultaneously regenerates the chiral auxiliary reagent. Furthermore, both enantiomers of the 3-hydroxycarboxylic acid are available in almost optically pure form depending on which reagent is chosen as the starting material. 

Crystalline, diastereomerieally pure syn-aIdols are also available from chiral A-acylsultams. lhe outcome of the induction can be controlled by appropriate choice of the counterion in the cnolate boron enolates lead, almost exclusively, to one adduct 27 (d.r. >97 3, major adduct/ sum of all other diastereomers) whereas mediation of the addition by lithium or tin leads to the predominant formation of adducts 28. Unfortunately, the latter reaction is plagued by lower induced stereoselectivity (d.r. 66 34 to 88 12, defined as above). In both cases, however, diastereomerieally pure adducts are available by recrystallizing the crude adducts. Esters can be liberated by treatment of the adducts with lithium hydroxide/hydrogen peroxide, whereby the chiral auxiliary reagent can be recovered106. 

Acetylsultam 15 is also used for stereoselective syntheses of a-unsubstituted /1-hydroxy-carboxylic acids. Thus, conversion of 15 into the silyl-A/O-ketene acetal 16 and subsequent titanium(IV) chloride mediated addition to aldehydes lead to the predominant formation of the diastereomers 17. After separation of the minor diastereomer by flash chromatography, alkaline hydrolysis delivers /f-hydroxycarboxylic acids 18, with liberation of the chiral auxiliary reagent 1919. 

Table 5. Carboxylic Acids 5 by Removal of the Chiral Auxiliary from Iron-Acyl Complexes 4...

When a mixture of aldehydes and (Z)-l-ethylthio-l-trimethylsilyloxy-l-propene is added slowly to a solution of tin(Il) triflate and 10-20 mol% of the chiral diamine 4 in acetonitrile, /1-silyloxy thioesters 5 are obtained in high simple diastereoselection and induced stereoselectivity. Thus, the chiral auxiliary reagent can be used in substoichiometric amount. A rationale is given by the catalytic cycle shown below, whereby the chiral tin(II) catalyst 6 is liberated once the complex 7 has formed33. 

Chiral imines derived from 1-phenylethanone and (I. Sj-exo-l, 7,7-trimethyIbicyclo-[2.2.1]heptan-2-amine [(S)-isobornylamine], (.S>1-phenylethanamine or (R)-l-(1-naphthyl) ethanamine are transformed into the corresponding (vinylamino)dichloroboranes (e.g., 3) by treatment with trichloroborane and triethylamine in dichloromethane. Reaction of the chiral boron azaenolates with aromatic aldehydes at 25 "C, and subsequent acidic hydrolysis, furnishes aldol adducts with enantiomeric excesses in the range of 2.5 to 47.7%. Significantly lower asymmetric inductions are obtained from additions of the corresponding lithium and magnesium azaenolates. Best results arc achieved using (.S )-isobornylamine as the chiral auxiliary 3. 

---