PipPhos and MorfPhos: Privileged Monodentate Phosphoramidite Ligands for Rhodium-Catalyzed Asymmetric Hydrogenation

A library of 20 monodentate phosphoramidite ligands has been prepared and applied in rhodium-catalyzed asymmetric hydrogenation. This resulted in the identification of two ligands, PipPhos and MorfPhos, that afford excellent and in several cases unprecedented enantioselectivities in the hydrogenation of N-acyldehydroamino acid esters, dimethyl itaconate, acyclic N-acylenamides, and cyclic N-acylenamides. In addition, a method for the parallel enantioselectivity determination of eight acylated amines is presented.

A high-throughput NMR-based ee-assay using chemical shift imaging

The throughput of a previously described NMR-based -assay has been increased by a factor of at least 4 as a consequence of adapting the system to chemical shift imaging; by using a 19-capillary system the enantiomeric purity of 5600 samples can be measured per day.

Controlling the enantioselectivity of enzymes by directed evolution: practical and theoretical ramifications

A fundamentally new approach to asymmetric catalysis in organic chemistry is described based on the in vitro evolution of enantioselective enzymes. It comprises the appropriate combination of gene mutagenesis and expression coupled with an efficient high-throughput screening system for evaluating enantioselectivity (enantiomeric excess assay). Several such cycles lead to a "Darwinistic" process, which is independent of any knowledge concerning the structure or the mechanism of the enzyme being evolved. The challenge is to choose the optimal mutagenesis methods to navigate efficiently in protein sequence space. As a first example, the combination of error-prone mutagenesis, saturation mutagenesis, and DNA-shuffling led to a dramatic enhancement of enantioselectivity of a lipase acting as a catalyst in the kinetic resolution of a chiral ester. Mutations at positions remote from the catalytically active center were identified, a surprising finding, which was explained on the basis of a novel relay mechanism. The scope and limitations of the method are discussed, including the prospect of directed evolution of stereoselective hybrid catalysts composed of robust protein hosts in which transition metal centers have been implanted.

Learning from Directed Evolution: Theoretical Investigations into Cooperative Mutations in Lipase Enantioselectivity

Molecular modeling with classical force-fields has been used to study the reactant complex and the tetrahedral intermediate in lipase-catalyzed ester hydrolysis in 20 enzyme/substrate combinations. The R and S enantiomers of alpha-methyldecanoic acid ester served as substrates for the wild-type lipase from Pseudomonas aeruginosa and nine selected mutants. After suitable preparation of initial structures from an available wild-type crystal structure, each system was subjected to 1 ns CHARMM force-field molecular dynamics simulations. The resulting geometric and energetic changes allow interpretation of some experimentally observed effects of mutations, particularly with regard to the "hot spots" at residues 155 and 162. The replacement S155F enhances S enantiopreference through a steric relay involving Leu162. The double mutation S53P + L162G improves S enantioselectivity by creating a new binding pocket for the S enantiomer with an additional stabilizing hydrogen bond to His83. The simulations provide insight into remote and cooperative effects of mutations.

Ligand-free Heck reactions using low Pd-loading

Activated and non-activated aryl bromides undergo smooth ligand-less Heck reactions, provided low amounts of palladium salts such as Pd(OAc)2 are used (ideally 0.01-0.1 mol%). This industrially viable process appears to involve palladium nanoparticles.

Liquid poly(ethylene glycol) and supercritical carbon dioxide as a biphasic solvent system for lipase-catalyzed esterification

The biphasic solvent system composed of poly(ethylene glycol)(PEG) and supercritical carbon dioxide (scCO2) is ideally suited for the lipase-catalyzed acylation of alcohols; batch or continuous flow acylations are possible, scCO2 being used to extract the products.

Enantioselective Rh-catalyzed hydrogenation of vinyl carboxylates with monodentate phosphite ligands

[reaction: see text] Alkyl-substituted vinylcarboxylates, which normally show poor enantioselectivity in Rh-catalyzed hydrogenation with traditional chiral diphosphines, undergo highly enantioselective reactions with BINOL- and carbohydrate-based monophosphite ligands.

A practical high-throughput screening system for enantioselectivity by using FTIR spectroscopy

For the first time FTIR spectroscopy has been applied to the measurement of enantiomeric purity. The underlying concept is based on the use of pseudo-enantiomers that are (13)C-labeled at appropriate positions. Upon applying Lambert-Beer's law in the determination of the concentrations of both enantiomers, the ee values are accessible, accuracy to within +/-5 % of the true values being possible. The application of a commercially available high-throughput FTIR system results in a slightly decreased accuracy (+/-7% for the ee values), but this allows a throughput of up to 10000 samples per day. The method is of interest in the area of combinatorial symmetric catalysis and directed evolution of enantioselective enzymes.