Dendritic BIPHEP: Synthesis and application in asymmetric hydrogenation of β-ketoesters

Synthesis of Dendrimers with a Bidentate Phosphine Core Ligand Having Carboxy Groups at the Peripheral Layer and Their Application to Aqueous Media Cross-Coupling Reactions

We prepared a series of dendrimers with a bidentate phosphine core ligand having carboxy groups at the peripheral layer. By employing the corresponding water-soluble dendritic phosphine-palladium complex as a catalyst, the aqueous media Suzuki-Miyaura reaction and Tsuji-Trost reaction proceeded to provide the corresponding cross-coupling product.

Asymmetric hydrogenation in the core of dendrimers

The transition metal complexes containing chiral phosphorus ligands are the most widely and successfully used catalysts in asymmetric hydrogenation of unsaturated compounds. However, a major problem associated with these homogeneous catalytic systems is the separation and recycling of the often expensive and easily oxidized chiral catalysts. In addition, many hydrogenation reactions still lack efficient chiral catalysts, and the stereoselectivities in many hydrogenation reactions are substrate-dependent. Therefore, the development of highly effective and recyclable chiral phosphorus catalysts is highly desirable. Over the past few decades, a number of chiral catalysts have been successfully anchored onto different supports, such as cross-linked polymeric resins and inorganic materials. However, most of the classical supported chiral catalysts suffered from inferior catalytic properties to their homogeneous counterparts due to poor accessibility, random anchoring, and disturbed geometry of the active sites in the solid matrix. To overcome this drawback, dendrimers, which have well-defined and globular macromolecular architectures serve as a promising type of soluble catalyst support. The catalytic sites are generally located at the core or on the periphery of the dendrimer, and the resulting dendritic catalysts are designable. Incorporation of a chiral catalyst into a sterically demanding dendrimer will create a specific microenvironment around the catalytic site and thus influence the catalytic performance of the metal center, like an enzyme does. In this Account, we survey the development of core-functionalized chiral dendritic phosphorus ligands for asymmetric hydrogenation mainly by our research group. Several series of chiral dendritic phosphorus ligands, including diphosphines, monodentate phosphoramidites, and P,N-ligands, have been synthesized by attaching the corresponding chiral phosphorus units into the core or the focal point of Fréchet-type dendrons. Their transition metal (Ru, Rh, or Ir) complexes have been applied in the asymmetric hydrogenation of prochiral olefins and ketones, as well as some challenging imine-type substrates. All reactions were carried out in a homogeneous manner, and the structure-property relationships in some cases were established. The sterically demanding dendritic wedges were found to play important roles in catalytic properties, and better catalytic activities or enantioselectivities or both than those obtained from the corresponding monomeric catalysts were achieved in most cases. In addition, the dendritic catalysts could be readily recycled by means of solvent precipitation, water- or temperature-induced two-phase separation. Our study has thus demonstrated that dendrimer catalysis could combine the advantages of both classical heterogeneous and homogeneous catalysis.

Dendrimeric phosphines in asymmetric catalysis

Dendrimers are hyperbranched nanosized and precisely defined molecules, attracting increasing attention each year due to their numerous properties in catalysis, materials science, and biology. This tutorial review concerns the use of dendrimers as catalysts and focuses more precisely on their properties as enantioselective catalysts. Emphasis is put on chiral phosphine complexes constituting the core or the end groups of various types of dendrimers. The effect of the location of the catalytic entities, the effect of the size (generation) and the nature of the dendritic skeleton on the enantiomeric excesses are discussed.

Phosphine Dendrimer-Stabilized Palladium Nanoparticles, a Highly Active and Recyclable Catalyst for the Suzuki−Miyaura Reaction and Hydrogenation

[reaction: see text] Phosphine dendrimer-stabilized palladium nanoparticles were synthesized and found to be highly effective for Suzuki coupling reactions, affording good to excellent product yields, high turnover number (up to 65,000), and excellent reusability (up to 9 catalytic runs). Furthermore, these Pd nanoparticles are efficient and selective catalysts for hydrogenations.