Thioureas chiral

Glycosidic thiol groups can be introduced into glycosyl bromides by successive reactions with thiourea and aqueous sodium disulfite (D. Horton, 1963 M. Cemy, 1961, 1963). Such thiols are excellent nucleophiles in weakly basic media and add to electrophilic double bonds, e.g., of maleic esters, to give Michael adducts in high yields. Several chiral amphiphiles have thus been prepared without any need for chromatography (J.-H. Fuhrhop, 1986 A). 

Treatment of cyclic carbonates of 1,2-diols with thiocyanate ion at temperatures of 100 °C or higher yields thiiranes (Scheme 145) (66CRV297, 75RCR138). Thiourea cannot replace thiocyanate satisfactorily, and yields decrease as the carbonate becomes more sterically hindered. The reaction mechanism is similar to the reaction of oxiranes with thiocyanate (Scheme 139). As Scheme 145 shows, chiral thiiranes can be derived from chiral 1,2-diols (77T999, 75MI50600). 

Except this particular example, the other possibilities such as the desulfurization of cyclic thioureas or the vacuum thermolysis of methoxy derivatives [1-5], has never been used for the preparation of chiral diaminocar-... 

Abstract After an overview of chiral urea and thiourea synthetic methods, this review describes the main applications of urea and thiourea complexes in asymmetric catalysis. Some recent examples of thioureas as catalysts are also presented. Coordination chemistry of ureas and thioureas is briefly discussed. 

Chiral amines and diamines are readily available substrates for the synthesis of ligands for transition metal-catalysed reactions since they can easily be transformed into chiral ureas and thioureas. Therefore, several groups have prepared chiral symmetrical ureas and thioureas, dissymmetrical ureas and thioureas, amino-urea and thiourea derivatives. Finally polyureas and non-soluble polythioureas were also prepared and tested as ligands for asymmetric catalysis. 

Treatment of a chiral amine with phosgene is the cheapest way to prepare symmetrical ureas [29]. Nevertheless, due to the toxicity and reactivity of that reagent, it can advantageously be replaced by triphosgene [30] or l,l -carbonyldiimidazole [31-34] or other derivatives such as l,l -carbonyldi-2(lH)-pyridinone [35]. This procedure can be extended to thiophosgene (Scheme 1) and its thio-analogues, such as l,l -thiocarbonyldi-2(lH)-pyridinone to produce thioureas [36] chiral diamines can thus be transformed into the corresponding monoureas or monothioureas. 

Since chiral amines are much more available than chiral isocyanates, ureas have often been obtained from reaction of an amine used as the chiral source with a stoichiometric amount of a non-chiral isocyanate [41]. Similarly, thioureas are obtained by reacting isothiocyanates with amines. The corresponding ureas and thioureas (examples in the following sections) are... 

Platinum-thiourea complexes have been extensively studied because of their biological activity [54], but few have been used in catalysis. Neutral thioureas are able to coordinate to metal centres through their sulfur atom (Scheme 9) [55,56] monomeric (I) and oligomeric (II) species are known for Rh [57], and an X-ray structure has also been determined for the chiral complex III [58]. In many complexes hydrogen bonding has been observed... 

Some chiral mono-, acyl- and di-thioureas have been used as ligand for the Rh-catalysed asymmetric hydroformylation of styrene. Although thiourea ligands form inactive systems with [Rh(COD)Cl]2 as the catalyst precursor, in standard conditions (40 °C, 40 bar CO -l- H2 1/1), the cationic Rh complex [Rh(COD)2]Bp4 combined with monothioureas as the ligand showed moderate to good activity (Scheme 29) [114]. 

Chiral lactones were also obtained by cyclocarbonylation of chiral acetylenic alcohols with Pd and thiourea (H2NCSNH2) (Scheme 32). No loss in chirality was observed, but large amounts of Pd and thiourea were used (10 mol %) since the catalyst deactivates by forming metal particles. The catalytic precursor (Pdl2 > PdCl2) and the ratio of thiourea to Pd were very important, thiourea being necessary for this reaction. The active species was supposed to be [Pd(thiourea)3l]I, which forms in situ from [Pd(thiourea)4]l2 and [Pd(thiourea)2]l2. It had to be a partially dissociated species since [Pd(thiourea)4](Bp4)2 was inactive [121]. 

The Pd(II)-catalysed asymmetric carbonylation of olefins with a chiral thiourea as the hgand has been reported recently. Since these ligands are stable in the presence of oxidising agents, they prevent Pd precipitation and double-bond isomerisation (Scheme 35) [141]. 

Even if organocatalysis is a common activation process in biological transformations, this concept has only recently been developed for chemical applications. During the last decade, achiral ureas and thioureas have been used in allylation reactions [146], the Bayhs-Hillman reaction [147] and the Claisen rearrangement [148]. Chiral organocatalysis can be achieved with optically active ureas and thioureas for asymmetric C - C bond-forming reactions such as the Strecker reaction (Sect. 5.1), Mannich reactions (Sect. 5.2), phosphorylation reactions (Sect. 5.3), Michael reactions (Sect. 5.4) and Diels-Alder cyclisations (Sect. 5.6). Finally, deprotonated chiral thioureas were used as chiral bases (Sect. 5.7). 

Finally, nitrone cyanation were performed with non-chiral urea and thiourea derivatives, the latter being more efficient for this process. No chiral compound has been described yet (Scheme 41) [ 159]. 

Aromatic thioureas were more active than alkyl (octyl, cyclohexyl) derivatives. Thioureas with trilluoromethyl substituents were even more effective. The same group also showed that these organocatalysts can act as weak Lewis acids and are thus able to alter the stereochemistry of the Diels-Alder reaction between cyclopentadiene and chiral acrylamide derivatives (Scheme 49) [167]. 

In 2008, Juaristi et al. developed the synthesis of a series of novel chiral thioureas that were further examined as possible ligands for the enantioselective addition of ZnEt2 to benzaldehyde." The expected carbinol was isolated in... 

In 2000, better results were obtained by Bonnet et al. by using readily available chiral thioureas as new ligands in the asymmetric rhodium-catalysed hydroformylation of styrene. In general, the conversion of styrene and enantioselectivities were modest, but when the reaction was carried out in heptane as the solvent, an enantioselectivity of 41% ee was obtained (Scheme 10.6). 

Other metals such as iridium have also been combined to chiral sulfur-containing ligands in order to induce the chirality in the hydrosilylation of ketones. Therefore, Lemaire et al. have described the use of several chiral thiourea ligands for the iridium-catalysed hydrosilylation of acetophenone. The best but moderate enantioselectivity (52% ee) was observed with the use of a C2-symmetric monothiourea ligand (Scheme 10.49) while the employment of... 

FIGURE 3.6 Chiral helical hexagonal structure of urea and thiourea adducts. A chiral guest generates one helical form. (Straight chain alkyl guests fit in the urea adduct channel larger molecules such as trans-decalin fit in thiourea adduct channel.)... 

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