Organocatalytic Michael Addition of Unactivated α-Branched Nitroalkanes to Afford Optically Active Tertiary Nitrocompounds.

The direct, asymmetric conjugate addition of unactivated α-branched nitroalkanes is developed based on the combined use of chiral amine/ureidoaminal bifunctional catalysts and a tunable acrylate template to provide tertiary nitrocompounds in 55-80% isolated yields and high enantioselectivity (e.r. up to 96:4). Elaboration of the ketol moiety in thus obtained adducts allows a fast entry to not only carboxylic and aldehyde derivatives but also nitrile compounds and enantioenriched 5,5-disubstituted γ-lactams.

Development of an α'-hydroxy enone for the aminocatalytic asymmetric formal conjugate addition of aldehydes to acrylates, vinyl ketones and acrolein.

Aminocatalytic asymmetric conjugate addition of aldehydes to Michael acceptors is a well established C-C bond forming methodology. However, various acrylic-type acceptors, including acrylic acid derivatives and acrolein, remain reluctant. Here we demonstrate that the internal H-bonding self-activation in α'-hydroxy enones allows them to react smoothly with enolizable aldehydes using commercially available aminocatalysts to afford adducts in good yields and high enantioselectivity. Straightforward conversion of the ketol moiety of these adducts into aldehyde, ketone and carboxylic acid functionalities offers an indirect, unified entry to products derived from acrolein, alkyl-vinyl ketones and acrylates, respectively.

Catalytic Asymmetric α-Functionalization of α-Branched Aldehydes.

Aldehydes constitute a main class of organic compounds widely applied in synthesis. As such, catalyst-controlled enantioselective α-functionalization of aldehydes has attracted great interest over the years. In this context, α-branched aldehydes are especially challenging substrates because of reactivity and selectivity issues. Firstly, the transient trisubstituted enamines and enolates resulting upon treatment with an aminocatalyst or a base, respectively, would exhibit attenuated reactivity; secondly, mixtures of E- and Z-configured enamines/enolates may be formed; and third, effective face-discrimination on such trisubstituted sp2 carbon intermediates by the incoming electrophilic reagent is not trivial. Despite these issues, in the last 15 years, several catalytic approaches for the α-functionalization of prostereogenic α-branched aldehydes that proceed in useful yields and diastereo- and enantioselectivity have been uncovered. Developments include both organocatalytic and metal-catalyzed approaches as well as dual catalysis strategies for forging new carbon-carbon and carbon-heteroatom (C-O, N, S, F, Cl, Br, …) bond formation at Cα of the starting aldehyde. In this review, some key early contributions to the field are presented, but focus is on the most recent methods, mainly covering the literature from year 2014 onward.

Synthesis of ß-Hydroxy α-Amino Acids Through Brønsted Base-Catalyzed syn-Selective Direct Aldol Reaction of Schiff Bases of Glycine o-Nitroanilide.

Here we report the highly enantio- and syn-selective synthesis of ß-hydroxy α-amino acids from glycine imine derivatives under Brønsted base (BB) catalysis. The key of this approach is the use of benzophenone-derived imine of glycine o-nitroanilide as a pronucleophile, where the o-nitroanilide framework provides an efficient hydrogen-bonding platform that accounts for nucleophile reactivity and diastereoselectivity.

Probing α-Amino Aldehydes as Weakly Acidic Pronucleophiles: Direct Access to Quaternary α-Amino Aldehydes by an Enantioselective Michael Addition Catalyzed by Brønsted Bases.

The high tendency of α-amino aldehydes to undergo 1,2-additions and their relatively low stability under basic conditions have largely prevented their use as pronucleophiles in the realm of asymmetric catalysis, particularly for the production of quaternary α-amino aldehydes. Herein, it is demonstrated that the chemistry of α-amino aldehydes may be expanded beyond these limits by documenting the first direct α-alkylation of α-branched α-amino aldehydes with nitroolefins. The reaction produces densely functionalized products bearing up to two, quaternary and tertiary, vicinal stereocenters with high diastereo- and enantioselectivity. DFT modeling leads to the proposal that intramolecular hydrogen bonding between the NH group and the carbonyl oxygen atom in the starting α-amino aldehyde is key for reaction stereocontrol.

Enantioselective Addition of Alkynyl Ketones to Nitroolefins Assisted by Brønsted Base/H-Bonding Catalysis.

Various sets of enolizable alkynyl ketones (including methyl ynones with α-aryl, α-alkenyl, and α-alkoxy groups) were able to react smoothly with nitroolefins with the assistance of bifunctional Brønsted base/H-bond catalysts to provide adducts with two consecutive tertiary stereocenters in a highly diastereo- and enantioselective fashion. Further transformation of the obtained adducts into optically active acyclic and polycyclic molecules, including some with intricate carbon skeletons, was also demonstrated.

α-Hydroxy Ketones as Masked Ester Donors in Brønsted Base Catalyzed Conjugate Additions to Nitroalkenes.

The catalyst-controlled enantioselective direct addition reaction of enolizable esters and related carboxylic acid derivatives to π electrophiles remains a difficult synthetic transformation. In this study, the suitability of α-hydroxy ketones as ester equivalents capable of being activated by bifunctional Brønsted base catalysts in the context of conjugate addition reactions to nitroolefins is demonstrated. The scope of the reaction, which affords the corresponding Michael adducts with very high stereoselectivity (diastereomeric ratio (d.r.) ≥95:5, up to 99 % enantiomeric excess (ee)), and its limitations are explored, as is the aftermath elaboration of adducts into densely functionalized enantioenriched products.

ß2, 2 -Amino Acid N-Carboxyanhydrides Relying on Sequential Enantioselective C(4)-Functionalization of Pyrrolidin-2,3-diones and Regioselective Baeyer-Villiger Oxidation.

A catalytic enantioselective entry to ß2, 2 -amino acids enabling their direct coupling with nucleophiles is described. The approach is based upon an effective bifunctional Brønsted base catalyzed construction of a quaternary carbon stereocenter at C4 position of pyrrolidin-2,3-diones. Subsequent regioselective Baeyer-Villiger oxidation of the resultant adducts gives ß2, 2 -amino acid N-carboxyanhydrides as the reactive species, which can further react with nucleophiles. Following this strategy both, ß2, 2 -amino acid derivatives with different functionalities at the newly created stereocenter, and spirocyclic structures can be efficiently prepared.

Asymmetric Assembly of All-Carbon Tertiary/Quaternary Nonadjacent Stereocenters through Organocatalytic Conjugate Addition of α-Cyanoacetates to a Methacrylate Equivalent.

An efficient, highly diastereo- and enantioselective assembly of acyclic carbonyl fragments possessing nonadjacent all-carbon tertiary/quaternary stereoarrays is reported based on a Brønsted base catalyzed Michael addition/α-protonation sequence involving α-cyanoacetates and 2,4-dimethyl-4-hydroxypenten-3-one as novel methacrylate equivalent.

1H-Imidazol-4(5H)-ones and thiazol-4(5H)-ones as emerging pronucleophiles in asymmetric catalysis.

Asymmetric catalysis represents a very powerful tool for the synthesis of enantiopure compounds. In this context the main focus has been directed not only to the search for new efficient chiral catalysts, but also to the development of efficient pronucleophiles. This review highlights the utility and first examples of 1H-imidazol-4(5H)-ones and thiazol-4(5H)-ones as pronucleophiles in catalytic asymmetric reactions.

Enantioselective construction of tetrasubstituted stereogenic carbons through Brønsted base catalyzed michael reactions: α'-hydroxy enones as key enoate equivalent.

Catalytic and asymmetric Michael reactions constitute very powerful tools for the construction of new C-C bonds in synthesis, but most of the reports claiming high selectivity are limited to some specific combinations of nucleophile/electrophile compound types, and only few successful methods deal with the generation of all-carbon quaternary stereocenters. A contribution to solve this gap is presented here based on chiral bifunctional Brønsted base (BB) catalysis and the use of α'-oxy enones as enabling Michael acceptors with ambivalent H-bond acceptor/donor character, a yet unreported design element for bidentate enoate equivalents. It is found that the Michael addition of a range of enolizable carbonyl compounds that have previously demonstrated challenging (i.e., α-substituted 2-oxindoles, cyanoesters, oxazolones, thiazolones, and azlactones) to α'-oxy enones can afford the corresponding tetrasubstituted carbon stereocenters in high diastereo- and enantioselectivity in the presence of standard BB catalysts. Experiments show that the α'-oxy ketone moiety plays a key role in the above realizations, as parallel reactions under identical conditions but using the parent α,ß-unsaturated ketones or esters instead proceed sluggish and/or with poor stereoselectivity. A series of trivial chemical manipulations of the ketol moiety in adducts can produce the corresponding carboxy, aldehyde, and ketone compounds under very mild conditions, giving access to a variety of enantioenriched densely functionalized building blocks containing a fully substituted carbon stereocenter. A computational investigation to rationalize the mode of substrate activation and the reaction stereochemistry is also provided, and the proposed models are compared with related systems in the literature.

Enantio- and diastereoselective organocatalytic α-alkylation of aldehydes with 3-substituted 2-(bromomethyl)acrylates.

The catalytic direct α-alkylation of aldehydes with 2-(bromomethyl)acrylates has been accomplished, giving rise to α-branched and functionalized aldehydes of high diastereo- and enantiopurity. The influence of the nature of the ester group of the acrylates in reaction stereoselectivity and especially in reactivity is investigated. Optimum conditions implicate the use of phenyl acrylates in conjunction with organocatalyst 8. Application of thus obtained adducts in synthesis is illustrated with a concise stereocontrolled preparation of trisubstituted cyclopentenes.

Brønsted acid assisted regio- and enantioselective direct O-nitroso aldol reaction catalysed by alpha,alpha-diphenylprolinol trimethylsilyl ether.

In the presence of p-nitrobenzoic acid, the O-nitroso aldol reaction of nitrosobenzene with enolisable aldehydes may be promoted by commercially available alpha,alpha-diphenylprolinol trimethylsilyl ether. The reaction proceeds with good yields and essentially complete enantioselectivity, with catalyst loadings in the 5-10 mol % range. The resulting alpha-oxyaldehyde adducts may be transformed in situ into alpha-oxyimines, which provide 1,2-amino alcohols upon treatment with Grignard reagents, in good overall yield (45-59%) and with typical diastereomeric ratios > or = 95:5.

A 4-hydroxypyrrolidine-catalyzed mannich reaction of aldehydes: control of anti-selectivity by hydrogen bonding assisted by Brønsted acids.

An anti-selective Mannich reaction of aldehydes with N-sulfonyl imines has been developed by using a 4-hydroxypyrrolidine in combination with an external Brønsted acid. The catalyst design is based on three elements: the alpha-substituent of the pyrrolidine, the 4-hydroxy group, and the Brønsted acid, the combination of which is essential for high chemical and stereochemical efficiency. The reaction works with aromatic aldehyde-derived imines, which have rarely been employed in previously reported enamine-based anti-Mannich reactions. Additionally, both N-tosyl and N-nosyl imines can be successfully used and the Mannich adducts can be easily reduced or oxidized, and after N-deprotection the corresponding beta-amino acids and beta-amino alcohols can be obtained with good yields. The results also show that this ternary catalytic system may be practical in other enamine-based reactions.

Alpha,alpha-diarylprolinol ethers: new tools for functionalization of carbonyl compounds.

Alpha,alpha-diaryl(dialkyl)prolinol ethers constitute a potent organocatalyst family which has been shown to be very general for a broad range of reactions involving enamine and iminium ion activation or a combination of both. The reactions are characterized by an efficient steric control approach and can lead to a variety of alpha-, beta-, gamma-, and alpha,beta-functionalized carbonyl compounds with excellent stereocontrol. As a full expression of their catalytic activity, these compounds are also excellent promoters of elegant cascade processes and valuable catalysts in water-compatible systems.