AHCTUNGRTEGNUN(N OTf)2 or AuCl yielded the amine 6a with moderate enan-
tioselectivities of 67 and 65% ee, respectively (Table 1, en-
tries 3 and 4). Different PtII and PtIV salts showed only mod-
erate activity giving 6a in yields between 24–28% with 20–
40% ee (Table 1, entries 9–11). It should be noted that the
differences between conversion and product yield resulted
from hydrolysis of the imine and from aldol condensation
reactions, which are observed as side reactions.
As AuI precursors proved to be both active and selective
in hydroamination reactions different AuI complexes were
applied to our reaction. Complex 1a did not show any activ-
ity in the reductive hydroamination of 4a with p-anisidine
5a. Next, we exchanged the counteranion of 1a to the less
coordinating tetrafluoroborate anion to access complex 1b.
To our delight, 1 mol% of 1b in combination with 2 mol%
(R)-TRIP 3e and 5 mol% iron complex 2 yielded 6a in
80% yield and with an excellent enantiomeric excess of
94% ee (Table 1, entry 7). This phenomenon can be referred
to the fact that the presence of a weakly coordinated anion
Scheme 1. Reductive hydroamination as alternative approach for the syn-
thesis of amines compared to classical reductive amination.
À
Results and Discussion
like BF4 supports the formation of a cationic species.
For comparison we hydrogenated the isolated correspond-
ing imine applying the same hydrogenation conditions by
using 2 mol% (R)-TRIP and 5 mol% iron complex 2 and
yielded 6a in 90% yield and with 92% ee.[15b] These results
clearly indicate that 1b has no significant influence on the
yield and enantioselectivity of this transformation.
Based on our experience in both the catalytic hydroamina-
tion of alkynes[14] and the iron-catalyzed enantioselective re-
duction of imines,[15] we set up a project to combine these
two methodologies for a more efficient synthesis of chiral
amines.
Herein, we present for the first time a suitable catalyst
system consisting of an active gold(I) complex 1,
Knçlkerꢃs[16] iron complex 2, and a chiral Brønsted acid 3 to
yield chiral amines directly from alkynes.
Next, well-known homogeneous hydrogenation catalysts
(7–11) were tested instead of the iron complex 2 to promote
the desired catalytic hydrogenation of the in situ formed
imine. First experiments revealed that the desired N-(1-phe-
nylethyl)aniline 6a was formed in the presence of various
Ru, Rh, and Ir catalysts. However, none of these established
precious-metal hydrogenation catalysts in combination with
chiral Brønsted acids, for example (R)-TRIP 3e, induced
any significant enantioselectivity.
Owing to the industrial importance of 1-arylethyl amines,
our initial catalytic investigations were carried out on the re-
action of phenylacetylene 4a with p-anisidine 5a as the
benchmark reaction (Table 1). According to our concept, we
used well-known commercially available hydroamination
catalysts in the presence of molecular hydrogen. The consec-
utive catalytic hydrogenation was catalyzed by a combination
of (R)-TRIP 3e (3,3’-bis(2,4,6-triisopropyl-phenyl)-1,1’-bi-
naphthyl-2,2’-diyl hydrogen phosphate) with the iron com-
plex 2. Surprisingly, the hydroamination catalyst has a signifi-
cant influence on both the yield and the enantiomeric excess
(ee) of amine 6a. First experiments revealed that the desired
chiral amine 6a was formed in the presence of various com-
mercially available ZnII, CuII, AuI, Ru0, PtII, and PtIV com-
As chiral 1,1’-binaphthalene-2,2’-diol (binol) phosphoric
acids showed high selectivity in the enantioselective reduc-
tion of C=X bonds when using Hanztsch Ester as the reduc-
ing agent[17] we draw our attention towards the combination
of 2 with different chiral phosphoric acids 3. As expected,
1,1’-binaphthyl-2,2’-diyl hydrogen phosphate 3a showed only
plexes (Table 1, entries 1–11). However, with Zn
ACHTUNGRTENN(UNG OTf)2 only
the racemic amine was produced, whereas the use of Cu-
&
2
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ꢂ 2012 Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim
Chem. Eur. J. 0000, 00, 0 – 0
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These are not the final page numbers!