Biomimetic Total Synthesis of (−)-Penibruguieramine A Using Memory of Chirality and Dynamic Kinetic Resolution

Memory of Chirality in the Asymmetric Synthesis of Piperidines with Vicinal Stereocenters by Intramolecular Sn2' Reaction

Intramolecular Sn2' cyclization of α-amino ester enolates provided piperidine derivatives with vicinal quaternary-tertiary stereocenters with excellent diastereo- and enantioselectivity via memory of chirality and the Thorpe-Ingold effect. DFT calculations provided a mechanistic rationale for the increase in chirality preservation via the Thorpe-Ingold effect. This new method has the potential to be integrated into concise asymmetric synthesis of bioactive molecules containing multisubstituted piperidine moieties.

Memory of chirality in a room temperature flow electrochemical reactor

Chiral compounds have become of great interest to the pharmaceutical industry as they possess various biological activities. Concurrently, the concept of “memory of chirality” has been proven as a powerful tool in asymmetric synthesis, while flow chemistry has begun its rise as a new enabling technology to add to the ever increasing arsenal of techniques available to the modern day chemist. Here, we have employed a new simple electrochemical microreactor design to oxidise an l-proline derivative at room temperature in continuous flow. Compared to batch, organic electrosynthesis via microflow reactors are advantageous because they allow shorter reaction times, optimization and scale up, safer working environments, and high selectivities (e.g. reduce overoxidation). Flow electrochemical reactors also provide high surface-to-volume ratios and impart the possibility of excluding the supporting electrolyte due to a very short interelectrode distance. By the comparison of Hofer Moest type electrochemical oxidations at room temperature in batch and flow, we conclude that continuous flow electrolysis is superior to batch, producing a good yield (71%) and a higher enantiomeric excess (64%). These results show that continuous flow has the potential to act as a new enabling technology for asymmetric synthesis to replace some aspects of conventional batch electrochemical processes.

Stereochemical Relay through a Cationic Intermediate: Helical Preorganization Dictates Direction of Conrotation in the halo-Nazarov Cyclization

A stereocontrolled halo-Prins/halo-Nazarov cyclization protocol is reported, where chiral information from a secondary alcohol is relayed through several intermediates yielding halocyclopentene products diastereoselectively. An enantiopure product is obtained when a nonracemic secondary alcohol is used. Experimental and computational studies are described, enabling the design and synthesis of systems that ionize and cyclize with >95% chirality transfer through a mechanism involving the creation and preservation of transient helical chirality in a pentadienyl cation intermediate. First, a diastereoselective alkynyl Prins cyclization is executed to synthesize a conformationally distorted dihydropyran intermediate with a curved backbone and high reactivity. This chiral precursor adopts a specific helical alignment early in the subsequent cationic ionization/halo-Nazarov cyclization process, dictating the direction of conrotation in the electrocyclization. Notably, despite the ablation of an sp³ stereogenic center during ionization, the low halo-Nazarov barrier enables efficient capture of a cationic intermediate with dynamic conformational chirality. The ionization and electrocyclization thus occur with "memory of chirality".

Asymmetric Total Synthesis of (+)-Neooxazolomycin Using a Chirality-Transfer Strategy

The total synthesis of (+)-neooxazolomycin was achieved from the amino-acid d-serine. The efficiency of this approach is derived from the use of principles of memory of chirality and dynamic kinetic resolution in the intramolecular aldol reaction of a serine derivative to build the densely functionalized lactam framework and to install three contiguous stereocenters. The key intermediate was readily elaborated to the target natural product.

Brønsted Acid Catalyzed Oxygenative Bimolecular Friedel-Crafts-type Coupling of Ynamides

A non-metal approach for accessing α-oxo carbene surrogates for a C-C bond-forming bimolecular coupling between ynamides and nucleophilic arenes was developed. This acid-catalyzed coupling features mild temperature, which is critical for the required temporal chemoselectivity among nucleophiles. The scope of nucleophiles includes indoles, pyrroles, anilines, phenols and silyl enolethers. Furthermore, a direct test of S_N 2' mechanism has been provided by employing chiral N,N'-dioxides which also enlightens the nature of the intermediates in related metal-catalyzed processes.