Thiourea derived catalysts Takemoto

The roles of the catalytic functions are not necessarily opposite or limited to Lewis acid/base pairs. For example, amine thiourea derivatives like Takemoto s catalyst 4 merge the hydrogen bond donor capability of the thiourea moiety with Bronsted base functionality of the amine function and revealed itself particularly efficient organocatalysts for Michael reactions of various 1,3-dicarbonyl compounds with nitroolefins (Scheme 3) [17-19]. 

Since Curran and Kuo and Schreiner and coworkers reported that urea and thiourea derivatives act like Lewis acid catalysts, several chiral urea and thiourea catalysts have been designed by Jacobsen et al. and Takemoto et al. ... 

Takemoto and co-workers designed a small hbrary of thiourea cyclohexane-diamine derived catalysts for the Michael reaction of malonates to nitrolefins [15]. The authors observed an interesting trend in catalysis the reaction only proceeded enantioselectively and in decent yields when the catalyst possessed both thiourea... 

The Takemoto group synthesized a series ofdiaminocyclohexane-based thiourea derivatives (e.g., 12, 40, 57, and 58) for catalysis of the Michael addition [149-152] ofmalonates to trons-j3-nitrostyrenes (Figure 6.18) [129, 207]. In the model, Michael addition of diethyl malonate to trons-]3-nitrostyrene at room temperature and in toluene as the solvent tertiary amine-functionalized thiourea 12 (10mol% loading) was identified to be the most efficient catalyst in terms of catalytic activity (86%... 

Acetylacetone has also been the subject of several studies when used as 1,3-dicarbonyl compound suitable to engage in a Michael reaction with nitroalkenes under H-bonding catalysis. In this context, Takemoto s catalyst 68a and valine-derived thiourea 74 have been tested in the reaction with acetylacetone with nitrostyrene furnishing good results, although no extensive study was carried out in order to evaluate the substrate scope with regard to the substitution at the nitroalkene. On the other hand, several functionalized thioureas have been expressly surveyed in this reaction, providing a detailed study... 

Anthracenones are another class of C-H acidic compounds suitable to be employed in this reaction (Scheme 4.16) and, in fact, Takemoto s catalyst has been identified as the most efficient catalyst among a series of different thioureas tested, which also included a family of different cinchona alkaloid-derived candidates." The reaction proceeded satisfactorily for a wide variety of aromatic nitroalkenes tested but poorer results were obtained in the case of the p-alkyl substituted Michael acceptors. 

In 2005, Wang and coworkers reported a new bifunctional binaphthyl-derived amine thiourea 16 as an efficient organocatalyst for the Morita-Baylis-Hillman reaction of cyclohexenone with aliphatic, aromatic and sterically hindered aldehydes. The design of the catalyst follows Takemoto s design of a bifunctional motif. This catalytic protocol provided access to useful chiral allylic alcohol building blocks in high yields and high enan-tioselectivities (Scheme 19.21). 

A different approximation was reported by Cordova and co-workers, [19] in 2008, using this time bromonitromethane (20) instead of bromomalonates. The reaction was efficiently catalyzed by J0rgensen s diphenylprolinol derivative (VII), and it afforded the corresponding cyclopropanes 21 in good yields and excellent enantioselectivities, albeit with low diastereoselectivities (Scheme 10.9,C). A similar approximation was reported by Takemoto and co-workers [20] using a,(3-unsaturated-a-cyanoimides and bromonitromethane. The reaction was efficiently promoted by bifunctional thiourea catalysts. The corresponding cyclopropanes were isolated in excellent yields and enantioselectivities but poor diastereoselectivities. 

A cooperative participation of the amido group via hydrogen bonding in the Michael addition of /S-ketoamides to a,-unsaturated carbonyl derivatives, catalysed by amino-thioureas, has been recognized as an important factor to attain high enantioselectivities in the construction of quaternary stereocentres (<98% Takemoto catalyst (163a) (g)... 

Figure 6.4 Products derived from the catalytic enantioselective Petasis-Akritopoulou reaction of quinolones catalyzed by a thiourea catalyst, as described by Takemoto s group [65].

The dual activation mode of the aforementioned cinchona alkaloid-derived thiourea catalysts proved to be highly effective in catalyzing the asynunetric Mannich reaction, among other transformations. These findings prompted the development of new, more simple bifunctional chiral catalysts that are predominately based on tra 5 -l,2-diaminocy-clohexane. For example, the application of the thiourea catalyst 120, which was developed by Takemoto and coworkers, afforded upon the reaction of Af-Boc-protected imines with diethyl malonate the desired chiral amines in good chemical yields (up to 91%) and enantioselectivities (98% ee) (Scheme 11.23) [81]. The catalytic mechanism presumably involves deprotonation and coordination of the active carbonyl compound by the chiral tertiary amine moiety. The formed enolate then attacks the si-face of the... 

The first report on the development and use of chiral squaramide derivatives as hydrogen-bond donor catalysts appeared in 2008 by Rawal and coworkers [78]. The authors showcased the usefulness of this new scaffold by evaluating the Michael addihon of 1,3-dicarbonyl compounds to nitroalkenes, the same reaction that was used to illustrate the capabilily of a thiourea catalyst by Takemoto [45]. Of the catalysts examined, the cinchonine-derived squaramide 13 functioned well as a bifunctional catalyst and provided the conjugate addition product in high yield and excellent enanhoselectivity (Scheme 10.12). Less reactive substrates such as a-substituted 1,3-dicarbonyl compounds also participate in the desired reaction. 

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