Mid Sweden University

The first direct intermolecular regiospecific and highly enantioselective α-allylic alkylation of linear aldehydes by a combination of achiral bench-stable Pd ⁰ complexes and simple chiral amines as co-catalysts is disclosed. The co-catalytic asymmetric chemoselective and regiospecificα-allylic alkylation reaction is linked in tandem with in situ reduction to give the corresponding 2-alkyl alcohols with high enantiomeric ratios (up to 98:2 e.r.; e.r.=enantiomeric ratio). It is also an expeditious entry to valuable 2-alkyl substituted hemiacetals, 2-alkyl-butane-1,4-diols, and amines. The concise co-catalytic asymmetric total syntheses of biologically active natural products (e.g., Arundic acid) are disclosed. Go organic! Directintermolecular regiospecific and highly enantioselective α-allylic alkylation of linear aldehydes by a combination of achiral bench-stable Pd ⁰complexes and simple chiral amines as co-catalysts is disclosed (see scheme). Copyright © 2012 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim.

Branching out! The first co-catalytic enantioselective (up to 98:2 e.r.) β-alkylation of α,β-unsaturated aldehydes by combination of simple chiral amine and copper catalysts provides β-branched aldehydes in a one-pot protocol (see scheme). The methodology was applied to the short total syntheses of bisabolane sesquiterpenes (S)-(+)-curcumene, (E)-(S)-(+)-3- dehydrocurcumene and (S)-(+)-tumerone. © 2011 Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim.

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. 

The concept of combining heterogeneous transition metal and amine catalysis for enantioselective cascade reactions has not yet been realized. This is of great advantage since it would allow for the recycling of expensive and non-environmentally friendly transition metals. We disclose that the use of a heterogeneous Pd-catalyst in combination with a simple chiral amine co-catalyst allows for highly enantioselective cascadetransformations. The preparative power of this process has been demonstrated in the context of asymmetric cascade Michael/carbocyclizationtransformations that delivers cyclopentenes bearing an all carbon quaternary stereocenters in high yields with up to 30:1 dr and 99% ee. Moreover, a variety of highly enantioselective cascade hetero-Michael/ carbocyclizations were developed for the one-pot synthesis of valuable dihydrofurans and pyrrolidines (up to 98% ee) by using bench-stable heterogeneous Pd and chiral amines as co-catalysts. © 2012 Macmillan Publishers Limited. All rights reserved.