Mid Sweden University

The existence of off-cycle catalyst cooperativity in amine/metal combined catalysis is disclosed. The experimental and density functional theory study of the amine/metal co-catalyzed enantioselective Michael/carbocyclization cascade reaction between allenes and alpha,beta-unsaturated aldehydes reveals that the dual catalysts can perform off-cycle cooperativity that gives access to stable bicyclo[3.2.0]heptane species that limits the carbocycle product formation. Insight into this mode of co-catalyst cooperativity sheds new light on the chiral amine/metal co-catalyzed reactions of to date and gives deeper understanding for improved future design of this type of enantioselective reactions.

The ability of intermolecular cooperative thiourea/oxime hydrogen-bond catalysis for improving and accelerating asymmetric aminocatalysis is presented. The two readily available hydrogen-bond-donating catalysts operates in synergy with a chiral amine catalyst to accomplish highly stereoselective transformations. The synergistic catalyst systems simultaneously activate both electrophiles and nucleophiles, and make the transformations more chemo- and stereoselective. This was exemplified by performing co-catalytic enantioselective direct intermolecular α-alkylation reactions of aldehydes, direct aldol reactions, and asymmetric conjugate reactions, which gave the corresponding products in high yields and enantiomeric ratios.

An eco-friendly dual catalyst system for stereoselective aldol reactions in the presence of water is described. It is based on the cooperative action of acyclic amino acids and H-bond donating hydroxy oxime catalysts. The synthetic utility of this dual catalyst system was further demonstrated by applying it as the key step in the expeditious and highly stereoselective total synthesis of D-lyxo-phytosphingosine (29% overall yield). Here the amino acid/hydroxy oxime system significantly accelerated the direct aldol reactions in the presence of water as compared to organic solvents. The stereo-and chemoselectivity were also significantly increased.

The highly enantioselective (up to >99.5:0.5 er) synthesis of polysubstituted spirocyclic oxindoles with four new contiguous stereocenters, including the spiro all-carbon quaternary center, is disclosed. It is accomplished by the highly stereoselective control of a dynamic conjugate/intramolecular allylic alkylation relay sequence based on the synergistic cooperation of metal and chiral amine catalysts in which the careful selection of organic Nand, metal complex, and chiral amine is essential. The intermolecular C-C bond-forming step occurred only when both the metal and chiral amine catalysts were present.

Polysubstituted 5- and 6-membered carbocycles were synthesized by the title reaction. The one-pot dynamic relay process generates four new stereocenters, including a quaternary carbon center, in a highly enantioselective fashion (99.5:0.5→99:0.5 e.r.) by using a simple combination of palladium and chiral amine co-catalysts. 

Palladium and a simple chiral amine are used as co-catalysts for the enantioselective conjugate addition of aryl boronic acids to α,β-unsaturated aldehydes (see scheme). The synthetic utility of this co-catalyzed reaction was demonstrated in the short total syntheses of (R)-(-)-curcumene and 4-aryl-2-ones. Copyright © 2013 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim.

A stereochemical divergent approach for the highly enantioselective synthesis of distinct bicyclic products with multiple stereocenters from a racemate using a single chiral catalyst is disclosed. It is based on switches of the overall reaction pathways in the chiral amine-catalyzed cascade reactions between racemic ?-nitro ketones and a,beta-unsaturated aldehydes using different achiral co-catalysts. The utility of the method is exemplified by the highly diasteroselective switch and stereoconvergent deracemization process by combination of chiral amine and achiral hydrogen-bond-donating catalysts.

Highly enantioselective co-catalytic direct aldol reactions by a combination of simple hydrophobic acyclic amino acid and hydrogen-bond donating catalysts are presented. The corresponding aldol products are formed in high yields with high regio-, diastereo- (anti or syn) and enantioselectivity (up to 99.5:0.5 er). The catalyst loadings can be decreased to as little as 2 mol%.