Visible-Light-Driven Catalytic Deracemization of Secondary Alcohols

Deracemization of racemic chiral compounds is an attractive approach in asymmetric synthesis, but its development has been hindered by energetic and kinetic challenges. Here we describe a catalytic deracemization method for secondary benzylic alcohols which are important synthetic intermediates and end products for many industries. Driven by visible light only, this method is based on sequential photochemical dehydrogenation followed by enantioselective thermal hydrogenation. The combination of a heterogeneous dehydrogenation photocatalyst and a chiral molecular hydrogenation catalyst is essential to ensure two distinct pathways for the forward and reverse reactions. These reactions convert a large number of racemic aryl alkyl alcohols into their enantiomerically enriched forms in good yields and enantioselectivities.

Palladium Catalysed Intramolecular Carbo-oxygenation of Propargylic Amines to Access 1,2-Amino Alcohols and alpha-Amino Ketones via in situ Tether Formation

Phillip Gulliver Dominic Greenwood

a-Amino ketones and 1,2-amino alcohols are important structural motifs in organic chemistry, that can be observed in natural products, pharmaceutically and bioactive compounds. For these reasons, they constitute privileged targets for the development of new and effective synthetic methods. The dual-functionalisation of unsaturated carbon-carbon bonds is a powerful approach to access these crucial motifs. In this context, Pd catalysis has been comprehensively investigated and has consistently demonstrated its capability. Methods enabling the concomitant formation of a carbonâ heteroatom and a carbonâcarbon bond are highly valuable, but the challenges of intermolecular reactions have led to the development of tether systems that require additional steps for their introduction and removal. In situ tethering strategies have previously been explored within the Waser group to circumvent these limitations. This approach relies on a one-pot, three component, Pd catalysed carboetherification or amination reaction, leading to rapidly increase in complexity of simple substrates. So far, the in situ methodologies developed by the Waser group have focused on the functionalisation of alkenes from allylic amines and alcohols. In this regard, the goal of my PhD was to expand the in situ tethering methodologies established within the Waser group, to the synthesis of a-amino ketones and 1,2-amino alcohols. Specifically, my focus was on the formation a trifluoromethyl hemiaminal with a propargylic amine and using the resulting aminal to direct the oxyalkynylation and oxyarylation of the alkyne substrate via a Pd catalysed transformation. Upon optimisation, the reaction of a protected terminal propargylamine, trifluoroacetaldehyde ethyl hemiacetal and silylbromoacetylene using a Pd0 complex with DPEPhos as the catalytic system and Cs2CO3 as the base gave the desired oxazolidine alkenes in high yields and E:Z selectivity. Substrates with substitution on the terminal position and at the propargylic required a change of ligand and base. The transformation was broadly tolerant towards substitution on the nitrogen and the alkyne. An oxyarylative variant was also developed, using Ruphos as ligand, and worked well with a range of iodoarene partners. The obtained oxazolidines could be conveniently orthogonally deprotected to access the a-amino ketone and terminal alkyne; the hydrogenation of the unsaturated oxazolidines has allowed access to 1,2-amino alcohol scaffolds and the application of gold catalysis converted the enyne-oxazolidine system into trisubstituted silyl furans. The identification of a sideproduct of the oxyalkynylation process led to the development of a carboxy-alkynylation reaction using a "CO2" unit derived from the carbonate base. Optimisation established CsHCO3 to the best base/"CO2" source, using DPEPhos as ligand. This transformation gave convenient access to diverse library of cyclic carbamates. Work is ongoing to achieve an enantioselective oxyarylation using chiral phosphine ligands. The asymmetric synthesis of oxazolidines, followed by the diastereoselective alkene hydrogenation and subsequent tether removal would allow the stereodivergent access to interesting diarylalkyl-1,2- amino alcohols. Most recently, the product was synthesised in 66% yield, with 66%ee using commercially available Trost ligand.

EPFL2020

Asymmetric Synthesis of 2,4,6-Trideoxy-4-(dimethylamino)-3-C-methyl-Llyxohexopyranose (Lemonose)

Nicolas George, Jieping Zhu

L-Lemonose, the glycosidic part of (–)-lemonomycin, has been synthesized in ten steps with 18% overall yield from Dthreonine. The key steps are a double, highly diastereoselective Grignard addition to a Weinreb amide and a chemoselective oxidation of a primary alcohol in the presence of a secondary alcohol, a tertiary alcohol and a tertiary amine, leading directly to the lactol.

Georg Thieme Verlag2011

Rh-catalyzed C-H Bond Heteroarylation with Hypervalent Iodine Reagents and Pd-Catalyzed Tethered Functionalizations of Carbon-Carbon Multiple Bonds.

Ashis Kumar Das

Transition metal-catalyzed C-H activation is a powerful tool for the synthesis of organic building blocks, materials, and natural products. Over the last decade, directing-group-assisted metal-catalyzed C-H functionalization has attracted increasing interest as a means to target specific C-H bonds. Moreover, a large variety of electrophiles has been employed in this kind of processes. In this thesis, we describe a novel C-6 selective C-H heteroarylation of pyridine-2-ones using indoleBX reagents as coupling partners under Rh(I)-catalysis. The reaction worked efficiently also with other analogous heterocyclic substrates and with a quinoline-N-oxide. We were able to obtain 6-(indol-3-yl)pyridinone and 8-(indol-3-yl)quinolone after cleavage of the directing group or rearrangement of the N-oxide moiety. 1,2-Amino alcohols are important structural motifs in organic chemistry that can be observed in natural products, pharmaceutically and biologically active molecules. The palladium-catalyzed difunctionalization of C-C multiple bonds has been broadly investigated as an efficient strategy to access such substructures. This transformation has been reported using either Pd(0)/Pd(II) or Pd(II)/Pd(IV) catalytic cycles, in which the nucleophilic functionalization of a putative Pd(II)-alkyl intermediate is achieved prior to beta-hydride elimination. As a further topic of this thesis, we developed new methods for the synthesis of amino alcohols whereby the Pd-catalyzed difunctionalization of alkynes and alkenes was combined with the tethering approach previously established in our laboratories. We first investigated the Pd-catalyzed enantioselective hydroalkoxylation of propargylic amines. The latter were tethered in situ with a trifluoroacetaldehyde hemiacetal. Best results were obtained with commercially available DACH-Phenyl Trost ligand. Aryl iodides were required as an additive in catalytic amount for successful outcome. A large variety of chiral oxazolidines were obtained in good to excellent yields and ee, followed by a diastereoselective reduction to give protected enantioenriched amino alcohols. A possible mechanism for this transformation relies on a Pd(0)/Pd(II) catalytic cycle involving oxidative addition of aryl iodide with a subsequent oxypalladation/protodemetallation (or reductive elimination) reaction. This is necessary to generate the active complex, not as the start of a cross-coupling event. The use of a commercially available DACH-Ph Trost ligand to produce high enantioselectivity in an unprecedented DYKAT process was critical to success.The Pd-catalyzed amino acetoxylation of cinnamyl alcohols was next taken into consideration towards the synthesis of valuable amino diol derivatives. In this case, preformed substrates were used, where the alcohol moiety was tethered to N-nucleophilic groups. Conditions involving Pd(II)/Pd(IV) catalysis and employing PIDA as a strong oxidant were employed. The use of this hypervalent iodine reagent was key to the success of the transformation. Amino acetoxylated products were obtained in moderate to good yields and dr. The scope of this reaction remains mostly limited to cinnamyl derived substrates. The reaction conditions did not tolerate substituents on the alpha, beta, and gamma positions of the allylic chains. Alkyl chain containing unsaturated alcohols delivered Aza-Wacker-type products.