.
Angewandte
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Table 1: Optimization studies.[a]
reasonably in pure water to furnish 2a in 95% ee (entry 14).
To verify the water effect on the reaction, the reaction was
performed with paraformaldehyde, instead of the aqueous
solution, under otherwise identical conditions. As shown in
entry 15, the reaction proceeded to give 2a with a slightly
lower ee value. Treatment of 1a with [Pd2(dba)3]·CHCl3 and
(S,S,S)-L3 in water/THF without formaldehyde did not lead
to the formation of the corresponding diol. The starting
material 1a was recovered in practically quantitative yield.
These results imply that the reaction undergoes the inter-
ception of the zwitterionic p-allylpalladium intermediates by
formaldehyde with subsequent cycloaddition as illustrated in
Figure 1, and water has no effect on the reaction.[14]
With the optimized reaction conditions in hand, the
generality of this protocol was evaluated with a variety of
substituted VECs (1). Significantly, a wide range of aryl- and
alkyl-substituted VECs were tolerated under the reaction
conditions, thus affording the corresponding 1,3-dioxolanes 2
in high yields with high levels of enantioselectivities (Table 2).
Various substituted aryl VECs having different electronic and
steric properties were converted into the corresponding
products 2b–k in high yields (86–98%) with excellent
enantioselectivities (91–99% ee). In addition, the reactions
of VECs with naphthyl, heteroaromatic furan, and thiophene
moieties also proceeded smoothly to afford the corresponding
2l, 2m, and 2n in high yields with good to excellent
enantioselectivities. The process also worked well for alkyl
VECs, thus furnishing the 1,3-dioxolanes 2o–r in high yields
with high ee values (82–95% ee). Meaningfully, the cyclo-
addition reaction was also effective for more functionalized
VECs, thus providing cyclized products 2s and 2t bearing
three protected hydroxy groups and a vinyl group at one
carbon stereogenic center.
Entry
Ligand
Solvent
Yield [%][b]
ee [%][c]
1
(R)-binap
THF
THF
THF
THF
THF
THF
THF
THF
23
43
44
55
22
0
82
92
96
82
81
93
37
68
87
40 (R)
26 (S)
16 (S)
19 (S)
10 (S)
–
65 (R)
84 (R)
96 (R)
87 (R)
95 (R)
82 (R)
79 (R)
95 (R)
90 (R)
2
3
4
5
6
7
(S)-Tol-binap
(S)-xylyl-binap
(S)-Cl-MeO-biphep
(S)-Segphos
(R,R)-DACH-phenyl
L1
8
(S,R,R)-L2
9
(S,S,S)-L3
THF
10
11
12
13
14
15[d]
(S,S,S)-L3
(S,S,S)-L3
(S,S,S)-L3
(S,S,S)-L3
(S,S,S)-L3
(S,S,S)-L3
1,4-dioxane
toluene
CH2Cl2
CyH
H2O
THF
[a] Reaction conditions: [Pd2(dba)3]·CHCl3 (2.5 mol%), ligand (5 mol%
for bisphosphanes; 10 mol% for phosphoramidites), 1a (0.2 mmol),
formaldehyde (2.0 mmol, 37% aqueous solution), solvent (1.0 mL),
208C, 15 h. [b] Yield of isolated product. [c] Determined by HPLC using
a chiral stationary phase. The absolute configuration was confirmed by
the deprotection of 2a to the corresponding diol, and the comparison of
the sign of optical rotation with that reported in the literature.[13] [d] The
reaction was carried out with 5 equiv of paraformaldehyde. Cl-MeO-
biphep=5,5’-dichloro-6,6’-dimethoxy-2,2’-bis(diphenylphosphino)-1,1’-
biphenyl, binap=2,2’-bis(diphenylphosphino)-1,1’-binaphthyl, dba=di-
benzylideneacetone, DACH-phenyl=1,2-diaminocyclohexane-N,N’-
bis(2’-diphenylphosphinobenzoyl), Segphos=5,5’-bis(diphenylphos-
phino)-4,4’-bi-1,3-benzodioxole, THF=tetrahydrofuran, CyH=cyclohex-
ane.
The decarboxylative cycloaddition reaction of VECs with
other aldehydes was also examined. As shown in Scheme 1,
the reaction conditions were also effective for other alde-
hydes. Thus, the reaction of 1a with acetaldehyde (35%
aqueous solution) under our standard reaction conditions
gave the cyclized product 3a in high yield with a 1:1
diastereomeric ratio and good enantioselectivity. It is note-
worthy that the reactions also proceeded well with aromatic
aldehydes (1.2 equiv to 1a), thus furnishing the corresponding
1,3-dioxolanes 3b and 3c in high yields with excellent
enantioselectivities for both of the diastereomers. The
absolute configuration of quaternary carbon center of 3b is
Initial investigations focused on finding effective chiral
ligands for the palladium-catalyzed decarboxylative cyclo-
addition of the Ph-VEC 1a, as a standard substrate, with
formaldehyde (37% aqueous solution) in THF at 208C for
15 hours (Table 1). Firstly, we tried different binap-type
axially chiral bisphosphane ligands, but the reactions
showed low yields and poor enantioselectivities (entries 1–
5). Trostꢀs ligand, (R,R)-DACH-phenyl, was also ineffective
for the reaction (entry 6). Through replacement of the
bisphosphanes with Feringaꢀs phosphoramidite[12] ligand L1,
the reaction efficiency was significantly improved to give the
desired 2a in acceptable yield with 65% ee (entry 7). To our
delight, by employing the diastereomeric phosphoramidite
ligands (S,R,R)-L2 and (S,S,S)-L3 (entries 8 and 9), we found
that the reaction could be promoted dramatically using
(S,S,S)-L3 and it afforded 2a in 96% yield with excellent
enantioselectivity (entry 9). Although the reaction efficiency
did not improve further by using other solvents (entries 10–
14), it is noteworthy that the reaction could proceed
Scheme 1. Palladium-catalyzed asymmetric decarboxylative cycloaddi-
tion of 1a with aldehydes. [a] Using 10 equiv of acetaldehyde (35%
aqueous solution). [b] Using 1.2 equiv of aldehydes.
ꢀ 2014 Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim
Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2014, 53, 6439 –6442