Hydrogen-Bonding Assisted Catalytic Kinetic Resolution of Acyclic β-Hydroxy Amides

Ionic Hydrogen Bond-Assisted Catalytic Construction of Nitrogen Stereogenic Center via Formal Desymmetrization of Remote Diols

The control of noncarbon stereogenic centers is of profound importance owing to their enormous interest in bioactive compounds and chiral catalyst or ligand design for enantioselective synthesis. Despite various elegant approaches have been achieved for construction of S-, P-, Si- and B-stereocenters over the past decades, the catalyst-controlled strategies to govern the formation of N-stereogenic compounds have garnered less attention. Here, we disclose the first organocatalytic approach for efficient access to a wide range of nitrogen-stereogenic compounds through a desymmetrization approach. Intriguingly, the pro-chiral remote diols, which are previously not well addressed with enantiocontrol, are well differentiated by potent chiral carbene-bound acyl azolium intermediates. Preliminary studies shed insights on the critical importance of the ionic hydrogen bond (IHB) formed between the dimer aggregate of diols to afford the chiral N-oxide products that feature a tetrahedral nitrogen as the sole stereogenic element with good yields and excellent enantioselectivities. Notably, the chiral N-oxide products could offer an attractive strategy for chiral ligand design and discovery of potential antibacterial agrochemicals.

Kinetic Resolution of Acyclic Tertiary Propargylic Alcohols by NHC-Catalyzed Enantioselective Acylation

We report herein an efficient NHC-catalyzed kinetic resolution of acyclic tertiary propargylic alcohols that provides them in high to excellent enantioselectivity. This is the first example of kinetic resolution realized by enantioselective acylation. The recovered enantioenriched alcohols can be facilely converted into other valuable compounds such as densely functionalized tertiary alcohols and carbmates in high yields and excellent stereopurity. Density functional theory calculations were performed to determine the reaction mechanism and to understand the origin of enantiodiscrimination.

N-Heterocyclic carbene catalyzed desymmetrization of diols: access to enantioenriched oxindoles having a C3-quaternary stereocenter

Herein, we describe an effective strategy for enantioselective synthesis of oxindoles having a C3-quaternary stereocenter via N-heterocyclic carbene (NHC) catalyzed desymmetrization of diols. The process is based on the catalytic asymmetric transfer acylation of primary alcohols using readily available aldehydes as an acylation agent. The reaction enables easy access to diversely functionalized C3-quaternary oxindoles with excellent enantioselectivity. The synthetic potential of the process is further demonstrated via the preparation of the key intermediate for (-)-esermethole and (-)-physostigmine.

Kinetic Resolution Approach to the Synthesis of C-N Axially Chiral N-Aryl Aminomaleimides via NHC-Catalyzed [3 + 3] Annulation

Chiral NHC-catalyzed kinetic resolution of N-aryl aminomaleimides allowing the synthesis of C-N axially chiral N-aryl aminomaleimides via remote chirality control is presented. The catalytically generated α,β-unsaturated acylazoliums from 2-bromoenals underwent selective [3 + 3] annulation with one of the enantiomers of maleimide to furnish fused-dihydropyridinone (bearing axial/central chirality, up to 6:1 dr, >99:1 er) leaving the enantioenriched opposite enantiomer (up to >99:1 er). Studies on C-N bond rotation barrier and dependence on temperature are also provided.