Creation through immobilization: a new family of high performance heterogeneous bifunctional iminophosphorane (BIMP) superbase organocatalysts.

An immobilized chiral bifunctional iminophosphorane superbase organocatalyst has been developed and applied in a range of challenging enantioselective reactions. A unique feature of this novel catalytic system is that the final step creation of the iminophosphorane occurs at the point of immobilization. The utility of the immobilized catalyst system was demonstrated in the nitro-Mannich reaction of ketimines as well as the conjugate addition of high pKa 1,3-dicarbonyl pro-nucleophiles to nitrostyrene. Catalyst recycling was also demonstrated.

Bifunctional iminophosphorane organocatalysts for enantioselective synthesis: application to the ketimine nitro-Mannich reaction.

The design, synthesis, and development of a new class of modular, strongly basic, and tunable bifunctional Brønsted base/H-bond-donor organocatalysts are reported. These catalysts incorporate a triaryliminophosphorane as the Brønsted basic moiety and are readily synthesized via a last step Staudinger reaction of a chiral organoazide and a triarylphosphine. Their application to the first general enantioselective organocatalytic nitro-Mannich reaction of nitromethane to unactivated ketone-derived imines allows the enantioselective construction of ß-nitroamines possessing a fully substituted carbon atom. The reaction is amenable to multigram scale-up, and the products are useful for the synthesis of enantiopure 1,2-diamine and α-amino acid derivatives.

A new family of cinchona-derived bifunctional asymmetric phase-transfer catalysts: application to the enantio- and diastereoselective nitro-Mannich reaction of amidosulfones.

A new family of bifunctional H-bond donor phase-transfer catalysts derived from cinchona alkaloids has been developed and evaluated in the enantio- and diastereoselective nitro-Mannich reaction of in situ generated N-Boc-protected imines of aliphatic, aromatic, and heteroaromatic aldehydes. Under optimal conditions, good reactivity and high diastereoselectivities (up to 24:1 dr) and enantioselectivities (up to 95% ee) were obtained using a 9-amino-9-deoxyepiquinidine-derived phase-transfer catalyst possessing a 3,5-bis(trifluoromethyl)phenylurea H-bond donor group at the 9-position.

Synthesis of a new chiral pyrrolidine.

The synthesis of a new chiral pyrrolidine has been performed using 2,3-O-isopropylidene-D-erythronolactol as a suitable starting material.

Synthesis of (R)-2-(benzyloxy)-tetrahydro-5,5-dimethylfuran by a new oxidative rearrangement.

The rearrangement under oxidative conditions of 3-(benzyloxy)-tetrahydro- 2,6,6-trimethyl-2H-pyran-2-carbaldehydes to afford a chiral protected tetrahydrofuran lactol is described.