Journal of the American Chemical Society
Article
enamine (Int3) and oxaziridine (IV) intermediates, respec-
tively. Ketalization with 4a or 1a is a quickly equilibrated
processes, and the subsequent dehydration of ketal Int4 is
much more endergonic than that for Int1, making the former
an overall rate-limiting step with an energy barrier of 20.9 kcal/
mol. The downhill reketalization of Int5 with hydrogen
peroxide is quite facile to give expected perhydroxyl acetal III
and oxaziridine IV. The conversion of III to IV occurred
spontaneously with no obvious barrier. Both III and IV could
effectively couple with enamine intermediate Int3 to give the
R-selective product via TS9 (Supporting Information Figure 5)
and TS7, respectively. The minor S product was formed by the
E-enamine addition to IV, with a calculated 99% ee value,
which is in accordance with the experimental result. In TS7,
intermolecular N−H−N hydrogen bonding between two
secondary amine side chains was noted, facilitating the
alignment of the two reactive intermediates. Depending on
the ionic status of the two intermediates, anion-mediated H-
bonding may also contributed and such a ternary TS8 could
also be located, showing a slightly favored energy barrier of
18.4 kcal/mol (Figure 6).26
AUTHOR INFORMATION
Corresponding Authors
■
Long Zhang − Center of Basic Molecular Science, Department
of Chemistry, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China;
Sanzhong Luo − Beijing National Laboratory for Molecular
Sciences, Key Laboratory of Molecular Recognition and
Function, Institute of Chemistry, Chinese Academy of
Sciences, Beijing 100190, China; Center of Basic Molecular
Science, Department of Chemistry, Tsinghua University,
Authors
Mao Cai − Beijing National Laboratory for Molecular
Sciences, Key Laboratory of Molecular Recognition and
Function, Institute of Chemistry, Chinese Academy of
Sciences, Beijing 100190, China; School of Chemical Science,
University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049,
China
Kaini Xu − Center of Basic Molecular Science, Department of
Chemistry, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China
Yuze Li − School of Chemical Science, University of Chinese
Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China; Beijing
National Laboratory for Molecular Sciences, Key Laboratory
for Analytical Chemistry for Living Biosystems, Institute of
Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100190,
China
Zongxiu Nie − School of Chemical Science, University of
Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China; Beijing
National Laboratory for Molecular Sciences, Key Laboratory
for Analytical Chemistry for Living Biosystems, Institute of
Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100190,
CONCLUSIONS
■
We have shown that amine and ketone can work in concert to
promote the effective enantioselective transformation of
carbonyls. Dual amine and ketone catalysis enable the
electrophilic activation of H2O2 via in-situ-generated ketimine
in the form of oxaziridine and allows for its effective coupling
with a nucleophilic enamine intermediate. The developed dual
organocatalytic protocol demonstrated high activity and
enantioselectivity for a broad range of β-ketoeasters andβ-
ketoamides that are not possible with other catalytic
approaches. The current approach represents a new organo-
catalytic strategy in activating hydrogen peroxide. Given its
versatility and operational simplicity, further advances along
this line can be anticipated.
Complete contact information is available at:
METHODS
Notes
■
The authors declare no competing financial interest.
Here we describe the general procedures for the α-hydroxylation of
carbonyl compounds through dual amine and ketone catalysis.
General procedure for the conditions: An oven-dried tube
equipped with stir bar was charged with the corresponding β-
ketocarbonyls (1, 0.2 mmol) and aminocatalyst 3a/NHTf2 (20 mol
%). After dissolution in a mixed solvent of toluene and 1,2-
dichloroethane (0.5 mL, 1:1 v/v), trifluoroacetophenone 4a (20
mol %) was added to the vial. Then H2O2 (30 wt % in water, 0.3
mmol) was added via a syringe. Upon completion of the addition, the
reaction was stirred at room temperature for at least 4 h (TLC
analysis). The solvent was removed under reduced pressure, and the
residue was purified by silica gel chromatography (petroleum ether/
ethyl acetate = 20:1−4:1) to afford desired product 2 or 6. The
enantiomeric excess was determined by HPLC.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
■
We thank the Natural Science Foundation of China
(21672217, 21861132003, and 22031006) and the Tsinghua
University Initiative Scientific Research Program for financial
support. We thank the Tsinghua Xuetang Talents Program for
computational support. S.L. is supported by the National
Program of Top-Notch Young Professionals. We thank
Professor Xinhao Zhang and Heming Jiang from the Peking
University Shenzhen Graduate School for assistance with ESI-
MS studies. All of the data supporting the findings of this study
are available within the paper and its
Supporting Information files,
.
The data sets generated and analyzed during the current study
are available from the corresponding author on reasonable
request.
ASSOCIATED CONTENT
* Supporting Information
The Supporting Information is available free of charge at
■
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REFERENCES
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(1) (a) Mukherjee, S.; Yang, J. W.; Hoffmann, S.; List, B.
B. S.; Johansen, T. K.; Poulsen, P. H.; Halskov, K. S.; Jørgensen, K. A.
General information, substrates and reagents synthesis,
optimization details, general experimental procedures
and compound characterization, determination of the
absolute configuration, synthesis transformations, mech-
anistic studies, and HPLC and NMR spectra (PDF)
Details of DFT calculations (PDF)
1085
J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2021, 143, 1078−1087