Tailoring the Recognition Property of a 19F-Labeled Gallium-Based NMR Probe: The Influence of the Metal Center

Chirality is a fundamental property of nature and an essential element of the life process. As the biological activities, metabolic pathways, and toxicity of individual enantiomers are often varied, methods to rapidly and accurately discriminate chiral analytes are in great demand. Here, we report a ¹⁹F-labeled gallium-based probe for the enantiodifferentiation of chiral monoamines, diamines, amino alcohols, amino acids, and N-heterocycles. A comparison between the new gallium-based probe and the previously developed aluminum aminotrisphenolate complex was performed. It was revealed that the gallium metal center displays a much stronger affinity toward the amino group compared to the hydroxy group, thereby producing simplified ¹⁹F NMR signals for analytes with multiple Lewis basic sites. For sterically bulky analyte, the replacement of the aluminum with gallium is envisioned to expand the binding pocket of the probe to allow different binding models to interconvert rapidly. This feature is important to the creation of easily interpretable ¹⁹F signals corresponding to each enantiomer. It is further demonstrated that the gallium-based probe is suitable for the assessment of the enantiomeric excess values of the crude products obtained in asymmetric reactions without the need for purification.

Introduction of chirality at C1 position of 1-substituted-3,4-dihydroisoquinoline by its enantioselective reduction: synthesis of chiral 1-substituted-1,2,3,4-tetrahydroisoquinoline - a review

There is a wide range of biological activities associated with C1 chiral carbon containing 1-substituted-1,2,3,4-tetrahydroisoquinolines (1-substituted-THIQs) which constitute the isoquinoline alkaloids, a large group of natural products. This work summarizes several novel catalytic stereoselective approaches to enantioselectively reduce the 1-substituted-3,4-dihydroisoquinolines (1-substituted-DHIQs) to produce the desired 1-substituted-THIQs. The 1-substituted-DHIQs were prepared by using the Bischler-Napieralski reaction. The enantioselective reduction of 1-substituted-DHIQs was accomplished by using chiral hydride reducing agents, by hydrogenation with a chiral catalyst, by enantioselective reduction of DHIQs possessing a chiral auxiliary at the imine nitrogen by achiral metallic hydride reducing agents, or by enzymatic catalysis. Among these methods, much more work was carried out on the hydrogenation of 1-substituted-DHIQs in the presence of a chiral catalyst. This review summarizes articles and advancements on this topic from 1972 to 2023.

Recent Advances in the Enantioselective Synthesis of Chiral Amines via Transition Metal-Catalyzed Asymmetric Hydrogenation

Chiral amines are key structural motifs present in a wide variety of natural products, drugs, and other biologically active compounds. During the past decade, significant advances have been made with respect to the enantioselective synthesis of chiral amines, many of them based on catalytic asymmetric hydrogenation (AH). The present review covers the use of AH in the synthesis of chiral amines bearing a stereogenic center either in the α, β, or γ position with respect to the nitrogen atom, reported from 2010 to 2020. Therefore, we provide an overview of the recent advances in the AH of imines, enamides, enamines, allyl amines, and N-heteroaromatic compounds.

Nickel-Catalyzed Asymmetric Hydrogenation of Cyclic Alkenyl Sulfones, Benzo[b]thiophene 1,1-Dioxides, with Mechanistic Studies

A highly efficient catalytic system based on the cheap transition metal nickel for the asymmetric hydrogenation of challenging cyclic alkenyl sulfones, 3-substituted benzo[b]thiophene 1,1-dioxides, was first successfully developed. A series of hydrogenation products, chiral 2,3-dihydrobenzo[b]thiophene 1,1-dioxides, were obtained in high yields (95-99%) with excellent enantioselectivities (90-99% ee). According to the results of nonlinear effect studies, deuterium-labeling experiments, and DFT calculation investigations, a reasonable catalytic mechanism for this nickel-catalyzed asymmetric hydrogenation was provided, which displayed that the two added hydrogen atoms of the hydrogenation products could be from H₂ through the insertion of Ni-H and subsequent hydrogenolysis.

Iridium-Catalyzed Asymmetric Hydrogenation of Sterically Hindered Cyclic Imines for Enantioselective Synthesis of Tetrahydroisoquinolines

An efficient enantioselective hydrogenation of sterically hindered cyclic imines catalyzed by the Ir-^tBu-ax-Josiphos complex has been described, producing a series of useful chiral bulky tetrahydroisoquinoline analogs in high isolated yields (85-96%) with good to excellent enantioselectivities (74-99% ee). This transformation provided highly straightforward access to the useful derivatives of tetrahydroisoquinolines, which are of great potential value in drug molecule and natural product research.

Asymmetric Hydrogenation of 1-aryl substituted-3,4-Dihydroisoquinolines with Iridium Catalysts Bearing Different Phosphorus-Based Ligands

Starting from the chiral 5,6,7,8-tetrahydroquinolin-8-ol core, a series of amino-phosphorus-based ligands was realized. The so-obtained amino-phosphine ligand (L1), amino-phosphinite (L2) and amino-phosphite (L3) were evaluated in iridium complexes together with the heterobiaryl diphosphines tetraMe-BITIOP (L4), Diophep (L5) and L6 and L7 ligands, characterized by mixed chirality. Their catalytic performance in the asymmetric hydrogenation (AH) of the model substrate 6,7-dimethoxy-1-phenyl-3,4-dihydroisoquinoline 1a led us to identify Ir-L4 and Ir-L5 catalysts as the most effective. The application of these catalytic systems to a library of differently substituted 1-aryl-3,4-dihydroisoquinolines afforded the corresponding products with variable enantioselective levels. The 4-nitrophenyl derivative 3b was obtained in a complete conversion and with an excellent 94% e.e. using Ir-L4, and a good 76% e.e. was achieved in the reduction of 2-nitrophenyl derivative 6a using Ir-L5.

Asymmetric Synthesis of C1-Chiral THIQs with Imines in Isoquinoline Rings

Tetrahydroisoquinoline (THIQ) scaffolds are important structural units that widely exist in a variety of natural alkaloids and synthetic analogues. Asymmetric synthesis of C1-chiral THIQ is of particular importance due to its significant pharmaceutical, agrochemical, and other biological activities, and the usually distinct bioactivities exhibited by the two enantiomers. In this review, we highlight the significant advances achieved in this field, present recent asymmetric synthesis with imines in isoquinoline rings ordered according to the sequence of various substrate types. New strategies could be inspired and more types of substrates need further development.

1 Introduction

2 Catalytic Asymmetric Reaction of Dihydroisoquinolines

2.1 Asymmetric Reactions of 3,4-Dihydroisoquinolines

2.2 Asymmetric Reactions of Dihydroisoquinolinium Salts

2.3 Asymmetric Reactions of C,N-Cyclic N′-Acyl Azomethine Imines

2.3.1 NED [3+2] Cycloaddition of C,N-Cyclic N′-Acyl Azomethine Imines

2.3.2 IED [3+2] Cycloaddition of C,N-Cyclic N′-Acyl Azomethine Imines

2.3.3 [3+3] Cycloaddition of C,N-Cyclic N′-Acyl Azomethine Imines

2.3.4 [4+3] Cycloaddition of C,N-Cyclic N′-Acyl Azomethine Imines

2.3.5 Asymmetric Addition Reactions to C,N-Cyclic N′-Acyl Azomethine Imines

2.4 Asymmetric Reactions of C,N-Cyclic Nitrones

3 Catalytic Asymmetric Mannich Reactions of Isoquinolines

4 Conclusions and Perspectives

Reversal of enantioselectivity in chiral metal complex-catalyzed asymmetric reactions

Asymmetric catalysis represents an efficient approach to prepare optically active compounds. Commonly, both enantiomers of a chiral catalyst are used to synthesize two enantiomers of a chiral compound, however, it is quite difficult to obtain the catalysts with opposite configurations in most cases. Thus, chemists pay much attention to look for new strategies. Enantiodivergent synthesis demonstrates cost effectiveness and practicability to solve this issue by tuning the reaction parameters with the use of ligands derived from a single chiral source. In 2003 and 2008, two reviews have commendably summarized the enantiodivergent reactions, and some representative examples were illustrated. In this review, reversal of enantioselectivity in metal complex-mediated asymmetric catalysis from 2008 to present was updated. Several factors of delivering enantiodivergence are introduced, including metal salts, ligands, additives, solvents, temperature and so on.

Iridium-catalyzed asymmetric hydrogenation of quinazolinones

Herein, we reported iridium-catalyzed asymmetric hydrogenation of quinazolinones with up to 98% ee and excellent yields.