Communications
ee. We explain this finding by the fact that the Mannich
of the experiment, yields of at least 70% were achieved,
which means that the transformation of R-1 into S-1 must
indeed have occurred. We anticipate that the deracemization
might even become quantitative with larger batches and in
the absence of side reactions.
Meyerhofferꢀs double solubility rule for the solubilities of
racemic conglomerates with respect to monochiral crystals (in
analogy to vapor pressures in ideal gases),[22] which had only
recently been controversially discussed for the case of
racemizing conglomerates,[23] appears to hold well for our
system: the solubility of the enantiopure Mannich product 1 is
1.9 gLꢀ1, while it is 4.5 gLꢀ1 for rac-1. The rule predicts that a
racemic conglomerate, consisting of two different species,
should have exactly twice the solubility of a single enantio-
mer.[22] The observed deviation from the rule could be
attributed to the nonideality of the solution.[24]
reaction is already reversible and does not necessarily need
the further assistance of a catalyst. However, another control
experiment with a starting ee value of 0.2% (S) and without
added catalyst gave only 0.5% ee (S) after 32 days. It appears
that significant asymmetric amplification in reasonable reac-
tion times requires significant initial enantioimbalance.
Extended reaction times might even have adverse effects,
because side reactions could become significant, in particular
when the reaction runs for several weeks. The reverse of the
reaction depicted in Scheme 1, for example, gives both the E
and Z forms of hydrazone 2 (the Z/E isomerization is slow).[20]
However, only the E isomer can react in the forward reaction
step to give the Mannich product 1 with catalyst 3.
To see the effect of a different, simpler, and cheaper
catalyst, we also employed pyrrolidine (4). The deracemiza-
tion process is remarkably fast with 4 in the presence of glass
beads (an increase in Mannich product ee value from 13.9 to
60.6% was observed after only five days, see run 4, Figure 1).
While both rac-3 and 4 catalyze the deracemization process
by reversible formation of reactant 2, pyrrolidine might
additionally act as a base, abstracting a proton from the CH-
acidic position in 1 (run 4, Figure 1), which would also result
in deracemization, in analogy to the recently reported DBU-
catalyzed bimolecular enantiomerization of an amino acid
derivative (DBU = 1,8-diazabicyclo[5.4.0]undec-7-ene).[17,21]
Thus, the chiral product 1 might also enantiomerize directly
with pyrrolidine (i.e. without involvement of the reactant 2 in
the process S!R or R!S). To see whether pyrrolidine and/or
DBU could catalyze the Mannich type reaction itself, we
added them to separate reaction mixtures. Intriguingly, we
found that pyrrolidine is able to catalyze the reaction of 2 with
acetone, while DBU is not (no product formation was
detected). Instead, 4-bromo-N-benzoylhydrazine was
formed as a result of the fragmentation of reactant 2.
Notably, some enantioselective reactions that give a chiral
product with a CH-acidic position might even be more
tractable in the direct enantiomerization process than in
enantiomerization via the reactant—for example, when the
back reaction step is very slow (i.e. when practically
irreversible product formation is involved, as, for example,
in some asymmetric epoxidations) or when the desired chiral
product is formed under kinetic control.
We have also continuously monitored the enantiomeric
excess values in the solution and the solid state and compared
the latter with the results from samples taken directly from
the slurry before washing with toluene. We found that seven
days after the start of the experiment (with an initial ee value
of 17.5% and 30 mol% 3), the solid-state ee (or crystal
enantiomeric excess) value of 77.3% was dramatically higher
than the ee values in the sample from the slurry (25.7%). This
finding indicates that the actual deracemization is probably
much faster than the data depicted in Figures 1 and 2 implies.
To find out whether one enantiomer has actually been
transformed into its antipode, we isolated and purified the
crystalline phase only after complete enantiomeric purity was
achieved in a parallel run, to determine the total yield in the
transformed conglomerate. Taking into account the unavoid-
able loss of solid product owing to dissolution at the beginning
The dependence of the enantiomeric excess on the
reaction time in our system is similar to that reported recently
for the stirred slurry of an organic conglomerate, which,
however was achiral in the solution phase.[25] In a logarithmic
plot, the exponential increase of the ee values is clearly
apparent (see the Supporting Information, Figure S1). This
result is in accord with the predictions from two recent models
for the deracemization of racemic conglomerates involving
solution-phase enantiomerization,[17b,26] a transformation first
studied by Havinga in 1941.[27] He reasoned that because of
the faster “deposition” of those molecules from the stagnant
solution that already dominate in the crystal phase, the
transformation from the less abundant to the more abundant
form must be inevitable once the enantiomerization process is
fast enough, thus keeping the solution in its racemic state and
resupplying the enantiomer which is taken away faster from
the solution.[27b] Havinga employed supersaturation as the
driving force in the crystallization process. Recently, it was
proposed that recycling by thermodynamically controlled
dissolution in a vigorously stirred slurry together with kineti-
cally controlled nonlinear autocatalytic nucleation and crystal
growth could explain these phenomena in merely saturated
(not supersaturated) solutions.[28] The crystal growth is
autocatalytic, because the bulk crystal surface must be
involved in it. Crystal growth of the major isomer must be
faster than its dissolution; while the rate of dissolution is
proportional to the mole fraction of the respective crystal
enantiomorph, the crystallization rate should have a more
than linear dependence on the available crystal surface (or the
mole fraction) of that enantiomorph.
Stirring, especially in the presence of glass beads, causes
“secondary nucleation” by spawning off tiny microcrystals or
clusters[16,26,29] from the mother crystals through crushing or
shear forces. The rate of this secondary nucleation for a
specific crystal handedness is obviously proportional to the
grinding rate and to the mole fraction of the respective
enantiopure mother crystals.[30] The microcrystals have the
same handedness as their mother crystals and usually differ in
size among each other. The ensemble of crystals obtained
from vigorous stirring or grinding is permanently at non-
equilibrium. It is fuelled by the influx of mechanical energy, as
the thermodynamic energy content of the microcrystals
increases with decreasing size according to the Gibbs–
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ꢀ 2009 Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim
Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2009, 48, 590 –594