Stereoselective addition to chiral p-toluene sulfinimines

Article abstract of DOI:10.1016/S0040-4039(00)00949-7

Diastereoselective addition of a number of Grignard reagents to chiral p-toluene sulfinimines 2b-2d under the mediation of copper salts afforded various protected α-branched amines. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science Ltd.

Full text of DOI:10.1016/S0040-4039(00)00949-7

Tetrahedron Letters 41 (2000) 5725±5728
Stereoselective addition to chiral p-toluene sul®nimines
Wing Hong Chan,* Albert W. M. Lee, Ping Fang Xia and Wai Yeung Wong
Department of Chemistry, Hong Kong Baptist University, Kowloon Tong, Kowloon, Hong Kong
Received 12 April 2000; accepted 7 June 2000
Abstract
Diastereoselective addition of a number of Grignard reagents to chiral p-toluene sul®nimines 2b±2d
under the mediation of copper salts a€orded various protected a-branched amines. # 2000 Elsevier
Science Ltd. All rights reserved.
Keywords: asymmetric synthesis; chiral sul®nimines; addition; a-branched amines.
Enantiopure sul®nimines have been demonstrated to be versatile synthetic intermediates for the
synthesis of a variety of chiral materials.1,2 As a great number of drugs and drug candidates
possess an amine functionality, the asymmetric synthesis of enantiopure amines has become the
focus of considerable attention.3 7 The reactions between chiral sul®nimines and an
organometallic reagent, in principle, could give two types of nucleophilic attack, resulting in the
formation of the substitution and addition products, respectively (Scheme 1). For Ellman's tert-
butylsul®nimines (1), the steric bulk of the tert-butyl group completely excludes direct
Scheme 1.
* Corresponding author. Fax: (852) 2339 7348; e-mail: whchan@hkbu.edu.hk
0040-4039/00/$ - see front matter # 2000 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.
PII: S0040-4039(00)00949-7

5726
substitution at the stereogenic sulfur atom, thus a€ording only the protected a-branched amines
in a highly regio- and diastereoselective manner.4 In contrast, p-toluene sul®nimines (2) are
readily accessible materials but are sterically less demanding and do not undergo clean addition
reactions with Grignard reagents. Only activated benzylmagnesium chloride and allylmagnesium
bromide react with 2 in an addition mode while direct substitution of 2 occurs in the reaction with
methylmagnesium bromide.5,7 Herein, we report the e€ect of cuprous iodide in mediating the
regio- and diastereoselectivity of the Grignard reaction of p-toluenesul®nimines (2).
The enantiopure p-toluenesul®nimines were synthesized according to Davis' protocol.8 With
the chiral sul®nimines in hand, we ®rst explored the reaction between (S)-2b and 3-butenyl-
magnesium bromide under a number of reaction conditions. In the absence of cuprous iodide, a
1:1 diastereomeric mixture of sul®namides 6a and 7a was formed as only the minor products
irrespective of the solvent and the reaction temperature (Table 1, entries 1±3). Similarly when
n-butylmagnesium bromide was used, a 68% yield of sulfoxide 8d was obtained together with
only 7% of a 1:1 diastereomeric mixture of addition products (Table 1, entry 16). The composition
1
and assignment of the reaction products was assessed by H NMR spectroscopy.4 Most of the
products can be separated in pure form by combined column chromatography and preparative
TLC. Remarkably, under the mediation of cuprous iodide, (S)-2b underwent regioselective and
diastereoselective reaction with 3-butenylmagnesium chloride in THF at ^15ꢀC for 3 h a€ording
sul®namides in 80% total yield with a 14:86 ratio of (SS,S)-6a to (SS,R)-7a (Table 1, entry 7).
Impressively, no appreciable amount of the corresponding substitution product 8 was formed.
Apparently, catalytic amounts of CuI are insucient to promote the conjugated addition (Table
1, entries 4±6). On the other hand, as expected, increasing the reaction temperature deteriorates
the diastereoselectivity of the reaction (Table 1, entry 8). Attempts to further improve the selectivity
of the reaction by lowering the reaction temperature were unsuccessful. When n-butylmagnesium
bromide, after mixing with cuprous iodide, was allowed to react with (S)-2b, a comparably high
level of selectivity was achieved giving the corresponding sul®namides in 70% yield with a
diastereomeric ratio (dr) of 18:82 (Table 1, entry 17). For the more sluggish and bulky i-propyl-
magnesium bromide, the regio-directing e€ect of a cuprous salt became less important. Almost
identical results in terms of the chemical yield, regio- and diastereo-selectivity were observed
irrespective of the presence or absence of cuprous iodide (Table 1, entries 20 and 21). In both
cases, over a 30% yield of N-benzyl p-tolylsul®namide was formed via a reaction in which the
Grignard reagent functioned as a hydride donor. Presumably, due to the bulkiness of the i-propyl
group, the addition to the sul®nimine was facilitated even in the absence of cuprous iodide. On
the other hand, the generality of the cuprous salt mediated reaction was evaluated by performing
the addition reaction of 3-butenylmagnesium bromide to (S)-2c, (S)-2d, (S)-2e and (S)-2f. Except
for (S)-2e, all of the substrates reacted with 3-butenylmagnesium bromide in the presence of 0.5
equivalent of CuI to give a high yield of adducts with excellent regioselectivity (>98/2) (Table 1,
entries 9±11). The nitro substituent in (S)-2e which is susceptible to reducing agents caused com-
plications in the reaction.5 On the other hand, the diastereoselectivity of the addition reaction
appeared to be strongly related to the structure of the sul®nimine. By comparing the dr observed
in entries 7, 9, 10 and 11 in Table 1, it becomes evident that the larger substituent appended at the
imino carbon the higher degree of asymmetric induction. The relative stereochemistry of the major
diastereoisomer 6e was established by X-ray crystallographic analysis (Fig. 1). This result is con-
sistent with structure assignments by 1H NMR (vide supra).
Reminiscent of the chemistry of conjugate addition of organocuprates to a,b-unsaturated
ketones, the Grignard reagents, after modi®cation with CuI as demonstrated in the present work,

5727
Table 1
Regio- and stereoselective additions of chiral p-toluenesul®nimines

5728
Figure 1.
exhibited a higher propensity to undergo addition to sul®nimines. A six-membered ring transition
state for this addition is proposed (Fig. 2). The copper center of the organometallic agents
chelates with the oxygen atom of sul®nimines 2, hence, approach of the carbanions takes place
from the re-face of the sul®nimines.
Figure 2.
In conclusion, the methodology described in this communication o€ers an ecient and
enantioselective route to various protected a-branched amines.
Acknowledgements
This research was supported by a Faculty Research Grant from the Hong Kong Baptist
University (FRG/99-00/II-14).
References
1. For a review, see: Davis, F. A.; Zhou, P.; Chen, B.-C. Chem. Soc. Rev. 1998, 27, 13±18.
2. Liu, G.; Cogan, D. A.; Owens, T. D.; Tang, T. P.; Ellman, J. A. J. Org. Chem. 1999, 64, 1278±1284.
3. Cogan, D. A.; Ellman, J. A. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 1999, 121, 268±269.
4. Liu, G.; Cogan, D. A.; Ellman, J. A. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 1997, 119, 9913±9914.
5. Moreau, P.; Essiz, M.; Mcrour, J.-Y.; Bouzard, D. Tetrahedron: Asymmetry 1997, 8, 591±598.
6. Hose, D. R. J.; Mahon, M. F.; Molloy, K. C.; Raynham, T.; Willis, M. J. Chem. Soc., Perkin Trans. 1 1996, 691±
703.
7. Hua, D. H.; Miao, S. W.; Chen, J. S.; Iguchi, S. J. Org. Chem. 1991, 56, 4±6.
8. Davis, F. A.; Zhang, Y.; Audemichael, Y.; Fang, T.; Franelli, D. L. J. Org. Chem. 1999, 64, 1403±1406.