DOI: 10.1002/anie.201007187
Stereoselective Cross-Coupling
2
3
À
Highly Diastereoselective Iron-Mediated C(sp ) C(sp ) Cross-
Coupling Reactions between Aryl Grignard Reagents and Cyclic
Iodohydrine Derivatives**
Andreas K. Steib, Tobias Thaler, Kimihiro Komeyama, Peter Mayer, and Paul Knochel*
Transition-metal-catalyzed cross-coupling reactions have
Products of type 1 are versatile building blocks for
pharmaceuticals,[10] chiral ligands,[11] and auxiliaries.[12] They
are usually obtained by the opening of the corresponding
epoxides with aryl organometallic compounds. Enantioselec-
tive versions of this opening are of limited scope.[13] In fact,
the most efficient procedures for the desymmetrization of
oxacycles using aryl Grignard reagents have only been
reported for oxabenzonorbornadienes[14] and 2,3-disubsti-
tuted 7-oxabicyclo[2.2.1]hept-5-enes.[7a,b] These problems can
be solved by an alternative retrosynthesis involving the
diastereoselective coupling of the readily available iodohy-
drine derivative 4 with ArMgX 5 (Scheme 1).
À
become indispensible tools for C C bond-forming reactions
in modern organic synthesis.[1] Most of these reactions depend
on the use of palladium or nickel complexes as catalysts.
Although these metals are used in only catalytic amounts,
they have the disadvantage of being toxic[2] and/or expen-
sive.[3]
Iron-mediated coupling reactions[1e,4] were found to be a
valuable alternative, since iron is one of the most abundant
transition metals and its salts are inexpensive and environ-
mentally benign. Despite spectacular advances[5] and insights
into the role of iron in coupling reactions,[6] only a few
stereoselective versions of iron-mediated or -catalyzed C(sp3)
cross-coupling reactions are known.[5k,l,6f,7]
Recently, we developed a diastereoselective palladium-
catalyzed cross-coupling of various substituted cycloalkylzinc
reagents with (hetero)aryl halides[8] and bromoalkynes.[9]
However, this coupling reaction could not be used for the
preparation of a-arylated cyclohexanol derivatives of type 1,
since the required zinc reagent 2 undergoes fast elimination to
give cyclohexene (3; Scheme 1).
In preliminary experiments, we examined the cross-
coupling of the TBS-protected (TBS = tert-butyldimethyl-
silyl) iodohydrine 4 with PhMgCl in the presence of various
iron salts (Scheme 2). The addition of PhMgCl to the
Scheme 2. Cross-coupling of 4 with PhMgCl in the presence of various
iron salts.
cyclohexyl iodide 4 (75:25 cis/trans) in the presence of 10%
[Fe(salen)Cl][5n,15] salen = (R,R)-N,Nꢀ-bis(3,5-di-tert-butylsali-
cylidene)-1,2-cyclohexanediamine resulted in the exclusive
formation of protonated product (cHexOTBS; Table 1,
entry 1). Further attempts with iron salts, such as [Fe-
(acac)3][5i] (acac = acetylacetonate) and FeCl3,[5l] in catalytic
amounts furnished the desired cross-coupling product 1a in
27% yield at best and with a diastereoselectivity between
76:24 and 96:4 d.r. (entries 2–4). Significant improvements
were achieved by using substoichiometric amounts
(0.85 equiv) of the complex FeCl2·2LiCl,[6d] which is highly
soluble in THF; this complex preferentially gave the thermo-
dynamically more stable trans isomer[16] 1a in 48% yield
(59% GC yield) and 96:4 d.r. (entry 5). The addition of
N,N,N’,N’-tetramethylethylenediamine (TMEDA)[5l] led to a
deterioration of the diastereoselectivity (83:17 d.r.; entry 6).
The use of 4-fluorostyrene as the additive, which is known to
facilitate the reductive elimination step in nickel-catalyzed
cross-coupling reactions,[17] resulted in a higher yield of the
isolated product (61%; 78% GC yield) with an excellent
diastereoselectivity of 96:4 d.r. (entry 7).[18,19] To elucidate
whether traces of other transition metals present in the
Scheme 1. Retrosynthesis of 2-arylcyclohexanol derivatives 1.
[*] A. K. Steib,[+] T. Thaler,[+] Dr. P. Mayer, Prof. Dr. P. Knochel
Department Chemie, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universitꢀt Mꢁnchen
Butenandtstrasse 5–13, Haus F, 81377 Mꢁnchen (Germany)
Fax: (+49)89-2180-77680
E-mail: paul.knochel@cup.uni-muenchen.de
Prof. Dr. K. Komeyama
Department of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering
Graduate School of Engineering, Hiroshima University
Kagamiyama, Higashi-Hiroshima 739-8527 (Japan)
[+] These authors contributed equally to this work.
[**] Funding from the European Research Council under the European
Community’s Seventh Framework Programme (FP7/2007-2013,
ERC grant no. 227763) is acknowledged. We thank the SFB 749 and
the Fonds der Chemischen Industrie for financial support, and are
grateful to BASF AG, W. C. Heraeus GmbH, Chemetall GmbH, and
Solvias AG for the generous gift of chemicals. K.K. thanks the Japan
Society for the Promotion of Sciences (JSPS) for financial support.
Supporting information for this article is available on the WWW
Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2011, 50, 3303 –3307
ꢀ 2011 Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim
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