Strong Brønsted acid promoted asymmetric hydrogenation of isoquinolines and quinolines catalyzed by a Rh-thiourea chiral phosphine complex via anion binding

Reductive Etherification via Anion-Binding Catalysis

Reductive condensations of alcohols with aldehydes/ketones to generate ethers are catalyzed by a readily accessible thiourea organocatalyst that operates in combination with HCl. 1,1,3,3-tetramethyldisiloxane serves as a convenient reducing reagent. This strategy is applicable to challenging substrate combinations and exhibits functional group tolerance. Competing reductive homocoupling of the carbonyl component is suppressed.

Access to Chiral Seven-Member Cyclic Amines via Rh-Catalyzed Asymmetric Hydrogenation

A highly efficient asymmetric hydrogenation of azepine/oxazepine-type seven-member cyclic imine hydrochlorides was successfully developed using Rh/bisphosphine-thiourea ligand ZhaoPhos, affording various chiral seven-member cyclic amines with full conversions, high yields, and excellent enantioselectivities (up to 96% yield, >99% ee). Additionally, this asymmetric hydrogenation can proceed well on gram scale with excellent ee value. Moreover, control experimental results displayed that the anion-bonding interaction between the chloride ion of the substrate and thiourea motif of the ZhaoPhos played an important role to obtain excellent enantioselectivity.

Chiral ligands designed in China

Asymmetric catalysis has become an indispensable and productive field within the Chinese organic chemistry society. The design of chiral ligands is one of the most prominent research areas in this field. Since the late 1990s, Chinese organic chemists have developed numerous chiral ligands possessing novel chiral skeletons and design concepts. Some of these ligands have been widely adopted and can be regarded as ‘privileged ligand’, which have shown excellent performance in many asymmetric catalytic reactions. In this review, we provide an overview of the chiral ligands designed by Chinese scientists with the aim of promoting the development of this area in China and with the hope of encouraging more scientists across the world to use these ligands when designing asymmetric reactions.

Enantioselective Synthesis of Tetrahydroquinolines by Borrowing Hydrogen Methodology: Cooperative Catalysis by an Achiral Iridacycle and a Chiral Phosphoric Acid

We report herein the highly enantioselective synthesis of 2-substituted tetrahydroquinolines through borrowing hydrogen, a process recognized for its environmentally benign and atom-economical nature. The use of an achiral iridacycle complex in combination with a chiral phosphoric acid as catalysts was the key to the development of this highly efficient and enantioselective transformation.

Simultaneous engineering of an enzyme's entrance tunnel and active site: the case of monoamine oxidase MAO-N

A new directed evolution approach is presented to enhance the activity of an enzyme and to manipulate stereoselectivity by focusing iterative saturation mutagenesis (ISM) simultaneously on residues lining the entrance tunnel and the binding pocket. This combined mutagenesis strategy was applied successfully to the monoamine oxidase from Aspergillus niger (MAO-N) in the reaction of sterically demanding substrates which are of interest in the synthesis of chiral pharmaceuticals based on the benzo-piperidine scaffold. Reversal of enantioselectivity of Turner-type deracemization was achieved in the synthesis of (S)-1,2,3,4-tetrahydro-1-methyl-isoquinoline, (S)-1,2,3,4-tetrahydro-1-ethylisoquinoline and (S)-1,2,3,4-tetrahydro-1-isopropylisoquinoline. Extensive molecular dynamics simulations indicate that the altered catalytic profile is due to increased hydrophobicity of the entrance tunnel acting in concert with the altered shape of the binding pocket.

Iridium-catalyzed asymmetric hydrogenation of cyclic iminium salts

An iridium-catalyzed asymmetric hydrogenation of cyclic iminium salts has been developed, affording products with up to 96% ee.

Highly efficient synthesis of chiral aromatic ketones via Rh-catalyzed asymmetric hydrogenation of β,β-disubstituted enones

A series of chiral aromatic ketones were achieved with excellent enantioselectivities via Rh–ZhaoPhos catalyzed asymmetric hydrogenation of β,β-disubstituted enones.