Readily Available Highly Active [Ti]-Adamantyl-BINOL Catalysts for the Enantioselective Alkylation of Aldehydes

Regioselective Substitution of BINOL

1,1'-Bi-2-naphthol (BINOL) has been extensively used as the chirality source in the fields of molecular recognition, asymmetric synthesis, and materials science. The direct electrophilic substitution at the aromatic rings of the optically active BINOL has been developed as one of the most convenient strategies to structurally modify BINOL for diverse applications. High regioselectivity has been achieved for the reaction of BINOL with electrophiles. Depending upon the reaction conditions and substitution patterns, various functional groups can be introduced to the specific positions, such as the 6-, 5-, 4-, and 3-positions, of BINOL. Ortho-lithiation at the 3-position directed by the functional groups at the 2-position of BINOL have been extensively used to prepare the 3- and 3,3'-substituted BINOLs. The use of transition metal-catalyzed C-H activation has also been explored to functionalize BINOL at the 3-, 4-, 5-, 6-, and 7-positions. These regioselective substitutions of BINOL have allowed the construction of tremendous amount of BINOL derivatives with fascinating structures and properties as reviewed in this article. Examples for the applications of the optically active BINOLs with varying substitutions in asymmetric catalysis, molecular recognition, chiral sensing and materials are also provided.

P,S-Bidentate Phosphoramidites with (Ra)-BINOL Core in Palladium-Catalyzed Asymmetric Allylic Substitution

Abstract

New P,S-bidentate phosphoramidite ligands, including these having a stereogenic phosphorus atom in the 1,3,2-dioxaphosphepine ring, have been synthesized on the basis of (Ra)-BINOL and its adamantanyl derivatives. With their participation in the Pd-catalyzed asymmetric allylic alkylation of (E)-1,3-diphenylallyl acetate with dimethyl malonate and the amination with pyrrolidine involving these ligands have afforded selectivity up to 84 and 75% ee, respectively.

BINOL-Containing Chiral Porous Polymers as Platforms for Enantiorecognition

The enantioselective discrimination of racemic compounds can be achieved through the design and preparation of a new family of chiral conjugated BINOL-porous polymers (CBPPs) from enantiopure (R)- or (S)-BINOL derivatives and 1,3,5-tris(4-phenylboronic acid)benzene or 1,3,5-tris(4-ethynylphenyl)benzene, 1,3,5-triethynyl-2,4,6-trifluorobenzene, and tetra(4-ethynylphenyl)methane as comonomers following Suzuki-Miyaura and Sonogashira-Hagihara carbon-carbon coupling approaches. The obtained CBPPs show high thermal stability, a good specific surface area, and a robust framework and can be applied successfully in the fluorescence recognition of enantiomers of terpenes (limonene and α-pinene) and 1-phenylethylamine. Fluorescence titration of CBPPs-OH in acetonitrile shows that all Sonogashira hosts exhibit a preference for the (R)-enantiomer over the (S)-enantiomer of 1-phenylethylamine, the selectivity being much higher than that of the corresponding BINOL-based soluble system used as a reference. However, the Suzuki host reveals a preference toward (S)-phenylethylamine. Regarding the sensing of terpenes, only Sonogashira hosts show enantiodifferentiation with an almost total preference for the (S)-enantiomer of limonene and α-pinene. Based on the computational simulations and the experimental data, with 1-phenylethylamine as the analyte, chiral recognition is due to the distinctive binding affinities resulting from N···H-O hydrogen bonds and the π-π interaction between the host and the guest. However, for limonene, the geometry of the adsorption complex is mostly governed by the interaction between the hydroxyl group of the BINOL unit and the C═C bond of the iso-propenyl fragment. The synthetic strategy used to prepare CBPPs opens many possibilities to place chiral centers such as BINOL in porous polymers for different chiral applications such as enantiomer recognition.

C2-Symmetric 2,2'-Bipyridine-α,α'-1-adamantyl-diol Ligand: Bulky Iron Complexes in Asymmetric Catalysis

The synthesis of a chiral 2,2'-bipyridine-α,α'-1-adamantyl-diol ligand was achieved starting from commercially available materials. The bulky ligand was synthesized in three steps in 40% overall yield with stereoselectivities of 98% de and >99.5% ee for the S,S enantiomer. The absolute configuration of and structural insights into a heptacoordinated 2,2'-bipyridine-α,α'-1-Ad-diol/Fe^II chiral complex were obtained from single-crystal diffraction analyses. The newly synthesized ligand was used in iron-catalyzed asymmetric Mukaiyama aldol, thia-Michael, and Diels-Alder reactions.