Chiral pyrrolidine derivatives as catalysts in the enantioselective addition of diethylzinc to aldehydes

Dual Rh(II)/Pd(0) Relay Catalysis Involving Sigmatropic Rearrangement Using N-Sulfonyl Triazoles and 2-Hydroxymethylallyl Carbonates

Dual Rh(II)/Pd(0) relay catalysis of N-sulfonyl triazoles and 2-hydroxymethylallyl carbonates has been developed, which affords N-sulfonyl pyrrolidines in moderate to good yields with high diastereoselectivities. The reaction proceeds via a relay mechanism involving O-H insertion onto the α-imino Rh(II)-carbene, [3,3]-sigmatropic rearrangement, dipole formation through Pd(0)-catalyzed decarboxylation, and intramolecular N-allylation, leading to the formation of multiple bonds in a one-pot operation.

Сhiral and Racemic Fields Concept for Understanding of the Homochirality Origin, Asymmetric Catalysis, Chiral Superstructure Formation from Achiral Molecules, and B-Z DNA Conformational Transition

The four most important and well-studied phenomena of mirror symmetry breaking of molecules were analyzed for the first time in terms of available common features and regularities. Mirror symmetry breaking of the primary origin of biological homochirality requires the involvement of an external chiral inductor (environmental chirality). All reviewed mirror symmetry breaking phenomena were considered from that standpoint. A concept of chiral and racemic fields was highly helpful in this analysis. A chiral gravitational field in combination with a static magnetic field (Earth’s environmental conditions) may be regarded as a hypothetical long-term chiral inductor. Experimental evidences suggest a possible effect of the environmental chiral inductor as a chiral trigger on the mirror symmetry breaking effect. Also, this effect explains a conformational transition of the right-handed double DNA helix to the left-handed double DNA helix (B-Z DNA transition) as possible DNA damage.

Evaluation of enantiopure N-(ferrocenylmethyl)azetidin-2-yl(diphenyl)methanol for catalytic asymmetric addition of organozinc reagents to aldehydes

A facile and practical approach to preparation of enantiopure N-(ferrocenylmethyl)azetidin-2-yl(diphenyl)methanol was developed from cheap and easily available l-(+)-methionine. Synthetic highlights include the three-step, one-pot construction of the chiral azetidine ring and the development of an improved one-step procedure for the synthesis of the key intermediate l-2-amino-4-bromobutanoic acid. Enantiopure N-(ferrocenylmethyl)azetidin-2-yl(diphenyl)methanol was evaluated for catalytic asymmetric addition of organozinc reagents to aldehydes. The asymmetric ethylation, methylation, arylation, and alkynylation of aldehydes achieved enantioselectivity of up to 98.4%, 94.1%, 99.0%, and 84.6% ee, respectively, in the presence of a catalytic amount of chiral N-(ferrocenylmethyl)azetidin-2-yl(diphenyl)methanol. Our results demonstrated further that the four-membered heterocycle-based backbone was a good potential chiral unit for the catalytic asymmetric induction reaction, and the hindrance of the bulky ferrocenyl group, compared to a phenyl group, played an important role in the enantioselectivities. A possible transition for the catalytic asymmetric addition has been proposed on the basis of the crystal structure of the chiral ligand 3b including two HOAc molecules and previous studies.

3,3‘-Dipyridyl BINOL Ligands. Synthesis and Application in Enantioselective Addition of Et2Zn to Aldehydes

3,3'-di(2-pyridyl) BINOLs (4), prepared in three steps from commercial substances by a combined directed ortho metalation-Negishi cross-coupling protocol, constitute new members of the BINOL ligand family. They are among the most selective, general ligands, providing equal or greater stereoselectivities in the Et2Zn addition to benzaldehydes and cinnamaldehydes (Table 3) than any single BINOL ligand reported to date.

The Synthesis of N,O-Ferrocenyl Pyrrolidine-Containing Ligands and Their Application in the Diethyl- and Diphenylzinc Addition to Aromatic Aldehydes

A facile route to a series of planar chiral N,O-ferrocenyl pyrrolidine-containing ligands with varying substituents at the nitrogen and oxygen donor atoms is described. The oxygen donor atom was introduced via a diastereoselective ortho-metalation of N-methylpyrrolidinyl and N-allylpyrrolidinyl ferrocene intermediates and was quenched with various ketones. The nitrogen substituent was varied through deallylation and subsequent derivatization of a secondary pyrrolidine. The efficacy of these novel ligands was investigated in the enantioselective addition of diethylzinc and diphenylzinc to aromatic aldehydes. The ligands proved highly effective in the diethylzinc addition to benzaldehyde that resulted in high yields of up to 99% and enantioselectivities (ee's) of up to 95%. The role of planar chirality was explored and the results indicated that the planar chirality, and not the central chirality, of the ferrocenyl ligands was the dominant stereo-controlling element. Employment of a mixed ethyl-phenylzinc reagent in the phenylation of aromatic aldehydes led to a mixture of the two additional products, and the phenylated product was obtained in up to 37% ee.

Modeling the stereoselectivity of the beta-amino alcohol-promoted addition of dialkylzinc to aldehydes

The title reaction has been modeled by a Q2MM force field, allowing for rapid evaluation of several thousand TS conformations. For 10 experimental systems taken from the literature, the pathway leading to the major enantiomer has been identified. Furthermore, several possible contributions to the minor enantiomer have been investigated, providing an identification of the reasons for the sometimes moderate enantioselectivity of the title reaction, and allowing for future rational improvement of existing ligands. The favored pathways to the minor enantiomer, which must be blocked for significant selectivity improvement, differ strongly among ligands. Thus, design ideas are not necessarily transferable between ligand classes, but must be developed for each reaction on the basis of the pathway that needs to be blocked in each specific case. However, we have identified some general structure-selectivity relationships.

Catalytic asymmetric organozinc additions to carbonyl compounds

Because of the tremendous effort of a great number of researchers, the catalytic asymmetric dialkylzinc addition to aldehydes has become a mature method. Ligands of diverse structures have been obtained, and high enantioselectivity for all different types of aldehydes have been achieved. Among the representative excellent catalysts are compounds 1, 8, 120, 325, 352, and 360 discussed above. However, compared to the well-developed dialkylzinc addition, the catalytic asymmetric reactions of aryl-, vinyl-, and alkynylzinc reagents with aldehydes are still very much under developed. Although catalysts such as (S)-402 and 210 prepared by Pu and Bolm have shown good enantioselectivity for the reaction of diphenylzinc with certain aromatic and aliphatic aldehydes, the generality of these catalysts for other [formula: see text] arylzinc reagents have not been studied. The vinylzinc additions using ligands 1 and 412 reported by Oppolzer and Wipf were highly enantioselective for certain aromatic aldehydes but not as good for aliphatic aldehydes. Carreira discovered highly enantioselective alkynylzinc additions to aldehydes promoted by the chiral amino alcohol 415, but this process was not catalytic yet. Ishizaki achieved good enantioselectivity for the catalytic alkynylzinc addition to certain aldehydes by using compounds 160, but the enantioselectivity for simple linear aliphatic aldehydes was low. Another much less explored area is the organozinc addition to ketones. Yus and Fu showed very promising results by using ligands 381 and 406 for both dialkylzinc and diphenylzinc additions to ketones, but the scope of these reactions were still very limited. Therefore, more work is needed for the aryl-, vinyl-, and alkynylzinc additions and for the organozinc addition to ketones, although many good catalysts have been obtained for the dialkylzinc addition to aldehydes. Development of these reactions will allow the catalytic asymmetric synthesis of a great variety of functional chiral alcohols that are either the structural units or synthons of many important organic molecules as well as molecules of biological functions. Macromolecular chiral catalysts have become a very attractive research subject in recent years because these materials offer the advantages of simplified product isolation, easy recovery of the generally quite expensive chiral catalysts, and potential use for continuous production. Three types of macromolecules including flexible achiral polymers anchored with chiral catalysts, rigid and sterically regular main chain chiral polymers, and chiral dendrimers have been used for the asymmetric organozinc addition to aldehydes. Among these materials, the binaphthyl-based polymers such as (R)-451 developed by Pu have shown very high and general enantioselectivity. Study of the binaphthyl polymers in the asymmetric organozinc addition has demonstrated that it is possible to systematically modify the structure and function of the rigid and sterically regular polymer for the development of highly enantioselective polymer catalysts. The catalytic properties of highly enantioselective monomer catalysts can also be preserved in the rigid and sterically regular polymer provided the catalytically active species of the monomer catalyst is not its aggregate. The TADDOL-based polymers and dendrimers prepared by Seebach showed very high and stable enantioselectivity for the diethylzinc addition to benzaldehyde even after many cycles. These studies on macromolecular chiral catalysts demonstrate that these materials are potentially very useful for practical applications.