Construction of Single Stereocenters
Haifeng Du at the Chinese Academy of Sciences reported (J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2013, 135, 6810) the borane-catalyzed asymmetric hydrogenation of imine 1 to 2 using the diene 3 as a chiral ligand for boron. A single-enzyme cascade for the reductive transamination of acetophenone 4 with amine 5 to produce enantiopure sec-phenethylamine 6 was developed (Chem. Commun. 2013, 49, 161) by Per Berglund at the KTH Royal Institute of Technology in Sweden. A group at Boehringer Ingelheim in Ridgefield, Connecticut, led by Jonathan T. Reeves, disclosed (J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2013, 135, 5565) a procedure for the addition of DMF anion to N-sulfinyl imine 7 to furnish tert-leucine amide 8 with high diastereoselectivity. The tertiary carbinamine 10 was synthesized (Org. Lett. 2013, 15, 34) via the carbolithiation/rearrangement of vinylurea 9 as reported by Jonathan Clayden at the University of Manchester. Gregory C. Fu at Caltech reported (Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2013, 52, 2525) that the chiral phosphine 12 catalyzed the enantioselective addition of trifluoroacetamide to allene 11 to produce γ-amino ester 13 in enantioenriched form. Adeline Vallribera at the Autonomous University of Barcelona found (Org. Lett. 2013, 15, 1448) that a europium pybox complex effected the highly enantioselective α-amination of β-ketoester 14 to generate 15 on the way to the Parkinson’s disease co-drug L-carbidopa. Hisashi Yamamoto at the University of Chicago and Chubu University reported (J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2013, 135, 3411) that a halfnium(IV) complex of the bishydroxamic acid 17 catalyzed the enantioselective epoxidation of the tertiary homoallylic alcohol 16 to 18. The rearrangement of the allylic carbonate 19 to produce allyl ether 21 with high ee under iridium catalysis in the presence of ligand 20 was disclosed (Org. Lett. 2013, 15, 512) by Hyunsoo Han at the University of Texas, San Antonio. The asymmetric vinylogous aldol reaction of 3-methyl-2-cyclohexen-1-one 22 and α-keto ester 23 to furnish tertiary carbinol 25 using the bifunctional catalyst 24 was developed (Org. Lett. 2013, 15, 220) by Paolo Melchiorre at ICREA and ICIQ in Spain.