Highly enantioselective and efficient asymmetric epoxidation catalysts: Inorganic nanosheets modified with α-amino acids as ligands

Article abstract of DOI:10.1002/anie.201103713

Layered catalyst: The attachment of α-amino acid ligands to inorganic nanosheets for use as ligands to vanadium, resulted in a catalyst that enhanced the enantioselectivity of the epoxidation of allylic alcohols (see picture). The catalyst can be colloidized, allowing for the catalytic reactions to be carried out under pseudo-homogeneous reaction conditions and also the catalysts to be directly recycled by simple liquid/liquid separation. Copyright

Full text of DOI:10.1002/anie.201103713

DOI: 10.1002/anie.201103713
Synthetic Methods
Highly Enantioselective and Efficient Asymmetric Epoxidation
Catalysts: Inorganic Nanosheets Modified with a-Amino Acids as
Ligands**
Jiuzhao Wang, Liwei Zhao, Huimin Shi, and Jing He*
Persistent efforts have been dedicated to the development of
effective chiral catalysts for asymmetric synthesis. Explora-
tion of chiral ligands has been reported to provide the most
successful choices for metal-catalyzed homogeneous asym-
metric reactions.[1] Almost all the effective ligands reported
for homogeneous catalytic reactions share one prominent
feature: a rigid and bulky structure that is vital to creating
effective asymmetric microenvironments around metal active
sites.[2] Recently, solid surfaces have been used with success to
promote heterogeneous asymmetric catalysis, thus preserving
the high enantioselectivity of or even attaining higher product
ee values than their homogeneous analogues[3] by virtue of so-
called confinement effects.[4] In addition, the heterogeneous
catalysts, produced by immobilizing homogeneous catalysts
on solid surfaces, retain the active sites of homogeneous
analogues and are easily separated and recycled.[5] However,
there are still great challenges in heterogeneous asymmetric
catalysis: 1) Confinement has been reported to be successful
in some cases to enhance metal-catalyzed asymmetric syn-
thesis, but it is not always valid owing to the complicated
geometrical and chemical microenvironment in pores or on
surfaces.[6] More assured and efficient strategies are still
desired. 2) Constraining catalytic centers to solids usually
reduces the reaction rate because of the emergence of liquid/
solid interfaces and the diffusion limitation, which is a general
issue for heterogeneous catalysis. So it is very hard for
heterogeneous asymmetric catalysis to achieve excellent
conversion and enantioselectivity at the same time.[7] Only
few successful solutions have been reported so far.[3a,b,8]
3) Carrying out heterogeneous catalysis in a pseudo-homoge-
neous mode has been reported to be a feasible alternative[9] to
remedy the loss of catalytic activity. But a great difficulty
arises in the implementation of facile liquid/solid separa-
tion.[10] Soluble polymers have been applied as supports to
facilitate homogeneous catalytic reactions and liquid/liquid
separation.[11] Nevertheless, the flexible chains of polymers,
which adopt random conformation in solvent, are scarcely
helpful to asymmetric induction.
To all above challenges, elaborately designing a catalyst
which combines the best aspects of both solid-phase chemis-
try and solution-phase chemistry, thereby affording excellent
activity and meanwhile high enantioselectivity is no doubt
highly desirable. Hence, we report herein a novel, efficient
chiral catalyst by using inorganic nanosheets to modify with
pristine a-amino acids that serve as ligands. a-Amino acids
are well-known, naturally occurring chiral units for the design
of powerful chiral ligands for metal-catalyzed asymmetric
synthesis.[12] The inorganic nanosheets employed here are
positively charged brucite-like layers of layered double
hydroxides (LDHs). The metal center used here is vanadium,
which has been reported to demonstrate efficacy in the
asymmetric epoxidation of allylic alcohols.[2e,13] The asym-
metric epoxidation reactions of allylic alcohols holds a
prominent place in synthetic organic chemistry as optically
pure epoxides are important building blocks and pharma-
ceutical targets.[14]
LDHs
have
the
general
stoichiometry
3+
[M2+
M
x(OH)2]x+ [AnÀ
]
x/n·yH2O and the structure is
1Àx
composed of positively charged brucite-like metal hydroxide
layers intercalated with anions [AnÀ] and water molecules.
Both metal cations and intercalated anions can be varied over
a wide range,[15] thus giving rise to a variety of chemical
compositions.[16] This study employs the brucite-like layer
composed of, but not limited to, zinc and aluminium
hydroxides. Figure 1 schematically illustrates the ligands
proposed in this work. The a-amino acids (a; Figure 1) were
first intercalated into the interlayer regions of LDHs as anions
to produce the ligands b. The positively charged brucite-like
layer interacts with the a-amino acid anions through electro-
static attraction with the carboxylate groups. The basal
spacing (d003), determined from the powder XRD patterns,
is 1.23, 0.90, and 0.90 nm for l-glutamate-, l-alanine-, and l-
serine-intercalated LDHs (see Figure S1 in the Supporting
Information), corresponding to the tilt arrangement of
interlayer anions at 488, 458, and 368, respectively. The
LDHs intercalated with a-amino acid anions were then
delaminated in formamide[16b] or water to produce trans-
parent or translucent colloidal ligands (c; Figure 1, and see
Figure S2 in the Supporting Information) displaying a Tyndall
effect. The l-glutamate-intercalated LDHs were much more
difficult to fully delaminate because the interlayer l-gluta-
mate anions are attached to the brucite-like layers through
double carboxylate groups. So the attempt to delaminate l-
[*] J. Wang, L. Zhao, H. Shi, Prof. J. He
State Key Laboratory of Chemical Resource Engineering
Beijing University of Chemical Technology
Box 98, Beijing, 100029 (China)
E-mail: jinghe@263.net.cn
[**] This work is supported by the NSFC and the 973 Project
(2011CBA00504). J.H. particularly appreciates the financial aid from
the China National Funds for Distinguished Young Scientists
through the NSFC.
Supporting information for this article is available on the WWW
under http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/anie.201103713.
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Table 1: Asymmetric epoxidation of 2-methyl cinnamyl alcohol in organic
medium.[a]
Entry Ligand[b]
VO(OiPr)3
[mol%]
t
Yield cis/trans
ee [%][d]
[min] [%][c]
cis[e] trans[f]
1
2
3
1a[g]
1c[g]
1c
1a
1b
1a
1b
1c
1c
1.5
1.5
1.5
1.5
1.5
3.0
3.0
3.0
3.0
0
1440 47
1440 30
1440 35
1440 71
1440 28
26:74
27:73
30:70
20:80
23:77
49:51
34:66
25:75
38:62
–
16
54
46
14
48
16
68
63
56
–
42
97
95
38
92
53
92
96
93
–
4[h]
5[h]
6
520
1050 83
520 93
1440 99
1440
1440 61
520 93
1050 71
520 89
99
7
8
9
Figure 1. The a-amino acids used as ligands attached to the brucite-
*
*
*
*
*
*
like layers. ( : Zn, : Al, : N, : C, : O, : H; blue: Zn-O
octahedron, pink: Al-O octahedron). l-glutamic acid (1), l-alanine (2),
and l-serine (3) in pristine (homogeneous) state are labeled a; their
anions (green) in intercalated (heterogeneous) or delaminated (colloi-
dal) states are labeled as b and c, respectively.
10[i]
11[j]
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
1c
–
Zn/Al layers 3.0
9:91
–
7
–
2a
2b
2c
2c
2c
3a
3b
3c
3c
3c
3.0
3.0
3.0
3.0
1.5
3.0
3.0
3.0
3.0
1.5
39:61
22:78
24:76
39:61
23:77
40:60
28:72
22:78
36:64
25:75
50
95
94
97
96
62
95
92
96
96
69
15
51
16
17
64
27
51
15
1440 95
1440 43
glutamate-intercalated Zn/Al LDHs led to large swelling or
expansion of the interlayer gallery.
520
1050 81
520 84
91
The vanadium-catalyzed asymmetric epoxidation was first
performed using each of the three l-glutamate ligands 1a–1c
[1a: l-glutamic acid (homogeneous), 1b: intercalated l-
glutamate (heterogeneous), 1c: delaminated 1b (pseudo-
homogeneous)] with 2-methyl cinnamyl alcohol as the
substrate, a disubstituted allylic alcohol (Table 1). The
reaction was carried out preliminarily at 08C (entries 1 and
2) in a dichloromethane/formamide (1:21) medium. The
catalyst resulting from attaching l-glutamate to the brucite-
like layer (1c), led to an increase in the ee value of the product
from 42% to 97% for trans isomers and from 16% to 54%
for cis isomers. That is, noticeable improvement of the
enantioselectivity was achieved by using inorganic nano-
sheets. By increasing the reaction temperature from 0
(entry 2) to 208C (entry 3), the enhancement of enantiose-
lectivity was preserved. Similarly, enhancement of enantiose-
lectivity resulting from using 1b was observed for both cis and
trans isomers in dichloromethane (entries 4 and 5). By
increasing the loading of VO(OiPr)3 from 1.5 mol%
(entry 3) to 3.0 mol% (entries 8 and 9), the product yield
after the same (entry 9) or even shorter (entry 8) reaction
time was enhanced to more than twice without any loss of
enantioselectivity. In comparison to the result using 1a as the
ligand (entry 6), the ee values for trans isomers increased
from 53% to 92% when using 1b as the ligand (entry 7) and
to 93% when using 1c as the ligand (entry 9). The swelling of
the interlayer gallery of l-glutamate-intercalated LDHs
caused no visible adverse effect on the ee values, but the
catalytic efficiency was increased significantly (entry 8 versus
7); the product yield increased from 83% after 1050 minutes
to 93% after 520 minutes. The ligand 1b was simply dispersed
throughout the reaction medium and used as a solid
suspension together with VO(OiPr)3. The catalytic efficiency
of the solid/liquid catalytic system (entry 7) is inferior to the
homogeneous catalysis (entry 6) because of the diffusion
limitation in a heterogeneous reaction. The solid/liquid
interfacial diffusion limitation was greatly avoided by swelling
l-glutamate-intercalated LDHs (1c), as can be observed by
comparing entry 8 and 6 in Table 1. The interlayer expansion
1440 94
1440 51
[a] All data were reproduced at least twice and reported as an average. 3.0
mol% a-amino acid was used. The reaction was performed at 208C and
in CH2Cl2/HCONH2 (1:21) solvent mixture if not otherwise indicated.
[b] Delamination was performed in formamide. [c] Yield of the epoxy
alcohol isolated after chromatographic purification. [d] Determined on a
Varian Prostar 210 HPLC using a Daicel Chiral AD-H column. [e] The
excess enantiomer is (2R, 3S). [f] The excess enantiomer is (2R, 3R).
[g] The reaction was carried out at 08C. [h] Only dichloromethane was
used as the solvent. [i] No VO(OiPr)3 was introduced. [j] No a-amino
acids or their anions were present.
of 1c facilitated the decrease or even elimination of solid/
liquid interfaces, thus allowing the catalytic reaction to be
carried out under pseudo-homogeneous conditions. The
pseudo-homogeneous catalysis increased the yield from
83% (entry 7) to 93% (entry 8) in only half the time,
almost reaching the level of the homogeneous catalytic
system within the same time period (99%; entry 6). Given
the results in the absence of either vanadium as the catalytic
center (entry 10) or the a-amino acid as the chiral ligand
(entry 11), it is clear that the enhancement of chiral induction
originates from the a-amino acid anions attached to brucite-
like layers. Although VO(OiPr)3 and the LDHs together
(entry 11) were also active in the epoxidation, the activity was
found to be inferior to that of its complex with 1b (entry 11
versus 7), and 1c (entry 11 versus entry 8 or 9). The pseudo-
homogeneous nature of the catalytic system using 1c as the
ligand can be seen more clearly from the yield-time profiles
(Figure 2a). In using 1c as ligand, it is clearly observed that
the profile of yield versus time approaches that of the one
using 1a as the ligand, thus supporting the implementation of
pseudo-homogeneous catalysis when the brucite-like layers
bearing a-amino acid anions were swollen or delaminated
into a colloidal dispersion. Furthermore, ligands 1b and 1c
not only provide an ee value that is much higher than that
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Table 2: Asymmetric epoxidation of monosubstituted allylic alcohol and
homoallylic alcohol in CH2Cl2/HCONH2 medium.[a]
Entry Ligand[b]
Yield[c] [%] ee [%][d] t [min] Yield [%][c] ee [%][e]
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
1a
1b
1c
2a
2b
2c
3a
3b
3c
75
51
68
76
40
71
79
48
75
21
84
81
11
89
84
32
94
85
400
640
640
400
640
640
400
640
640
62
47
58
80
48
66
67
46
61
18
>99
>99
8
99
>99
20
Figure 2. Profiles of the yield of epoxy alcohol (a) and ee value of trans-
epoxy alcohol (b) versus reaction time in the epoxidation of 2-methyl
~
&
*
cinnamyl alcohol using 1a ( ), 1b ( ), and 1c ( ) as ligands.
>99
>99
obtained with 1a, but also maintains an ee value of around
90% (1b) and 95% (1c), respectively, throughout the
reaction (Figure 2b).
[a] All data were reproduced at least twice and reported as an average.
3.0 mol% VO(OiPr)3 and 3.0 mol% a-amino acid were used. The
reaction was performed at 208C. [b] Delamination was performed in
formamide. [c] Yield of the epoxy alcohol isolated after chromatographic
purification. The reaction time was 24 h for the epoxidation of cinnamyl
alcohol. [d] Determined on a Varian Prostar 210 HPLC using a Daicel
Chiral AD-H column. [e] Determined on a Shimadzu GC-2010 with an
Astec G-TA chiral capillary column.
To confirm the utility of the LDH nanosheets, l-alanine
(2a) and l-serine (3a) were employed (Table 1; the desig-
nations a, b, and c follow as for 1). Similar to the observation
for l-glutamate, the attachment of either l-alanine or l-
serine to brucite-like layers resulted in noticeable improve-
ment of the enantioselectivity for the trans and cis isomers.
The ee value for the trans isomers increased to 95%
(entry 13) and 94% (entry 14) when using 2b and 2c,
respectively, as the ligand; the eevalue obtained with 2a as
the ligand was 50% (entry 12). There was also an increase to
95% (entry 18) and 92% (entry 19) with 3b and 3c,
respectively, when compared to the 62% obtained with 3a
(entry 17). The delamination of l-alanine- or l-serine-inter-
calated LDHs (2c and 3c, respectively) enhanced the reaction
rate significantly, thus achieving a pseudo-homogeneous
system as observed for l-glutamate. Through delamination
(entry 14 and 19), the product yields were observed to be
higher than those obtained from the heterogeneous reaction
(entries 13 and 18) after half the time period, and approach
those from the homogeneous reaction (entries 12 and 17)
after the same time period, but increase in the ee values was
well preserved. By reducing the amount of VO(OiPr)3 by half
to alter the ratio of vanadium to the ligand from 1:1 to 1:2
(entries 16 and 21), the yield was found to decrease by half
with 2c and by less than one half with 3c. The reaction rate
when using either 2c or 3c as the ligand seems less sensitive to
the vanadium/ligand ratio than 1c, which probably originates
from the fact that 1c was swollen whereas 2c and 3c were
delaminated. Interestingly, the ee value was hardly influenced
in either case.
As demonstrated by the asymmetric epoxidation of 2-
methyl cinnamyl alcohol, it is feasible to implement an
epoxidation reaction using a pseudo-homogeneous catalyst,
derived from attaching a-amino acids to brucite-like layers,
and to significantly improve the enantioselectivity of the
reaction. The strategy was then demonstrated in the asym-
metric catalytic epoxidations of cinnamyl alcohol and iso-
prenol (Table 2). In the epoxidation of cinnamyl alcohol, a
monosubstituted allylic alcohol, significant improvement in
the ee value was achieved by using the catalysts derived from
the nanosheet attachment. The ee values for the epoxidation
products of the cinnamyl alcohol obtained with the LDHs
nanosheet modified catalysts increased to greater than 80%
from the 21% obtained with ligand 1a, the 11% obtained
with ligand 2a, and the 32% obtained with ligand 3a. The
product yield was improved when using the pseudo-homoge-
neous catalyst compared to the heterogeneous catalyst
(entry 2 versus 3, entry 5 versus 6, and entry 8 versus 9),
thus approaching the levels of homogeneous system (compar-
ing the entry for ligand c to a) within the same time period. In
the epoxidation of isoprenol, a small monosubstituted homo-
allylic alcohol, which is a long-standing problem in asymmet-
ric epoxidation, the improvement in the ee value is striking.
The ee values of the products obtained from using the LDHs
nanosheets modified catalysts were increased to greater than
99% compared to the 18% obtained with ligand 1a, the 8%
obtained with ligand 2a, and the 20% obtained with ligand
3a. Owing to the ready diffusion of the smaller isoprenol,
faster epoxidation was achieved than for the cinnamyl alcohol
when using the either of the heterogeneous catalysts (1b, 2b,
and 3b). The yields can also be improved by using the pseudo-
homogeneous catalysts (1c, 2c, and 3c) relative to the
heterogeneous catalysts (1b, 2b, and 3b), without any
noticeable change to the ee values.
As the 1b/VO(OiPr)3, 2b/VO(OiPr)3, and 3b/VO(OiPr)3
catalysts are heterogeneous, they were easily separated from
the reaction medium by simple filtration. After the first run,
4.3%, 6.1%, and 6.2% vanadium were dected in the filtrate
for 1b, 2b, and 3b, respectively. For the fresh catalyst, 2.1%,
3.4%, and 4.6% vanadium were detected in the solvent for
1b, 2b, and 3b respectively, before running the epoxidation.
That is, the vanadium in the filtrate primarily came from using
it in excess relative to the ligand content, and this could be
avoided by additionally modifying the optimized vanadium
loading. Accordingly, for 1b, for example, the yield only
slightly decreased for the third recycle and the ee value for the
trans isomer (major product) was fully retained (Figure 3a).
The vanadium was recovered in 92% yield after three
catalytic runs. In the recycle runs, the chiral a-amino acids
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layers led to catalysts that resulted in enhancement of the
enantioselectivity. Prolonging the reaction time for the liquid/
liquid system hardly had any adverse effects on the enantio-
selectivity, but did increase the yield of the epoxy alcohol to
above 95%, thus matching the yield observed in the
homogeneous system. No noticeable loss of the catalytic
efficiency and ee value for the trans isomer has been observed
after the three runs. After the catalytic reaction, the catalytic
center and colloidal ligand were present in the aqueous phase
(upper) while the product remained in the organic phase (see
Figure S4 in the Supporting Information). Therefore, the
colloidal catalysts were recycled simply and easily by direct
liquid/liquid separation after the reaction terminated.
To explain the enhancement of enantioselectivity seen
with the attachment of nanosheets, we propose that the
nanosheet serves as a “huge”, “rigid” substituent that imposes
steric effects upon the formation of the transition states. As
can be seen from the FT-IR spectra (see Figure S5 in the
Supporting Information), the introduction of VO(OiPr)3 to
the glutamate-intercalated LDHs results in the emergence of
the band at 567 cmÀ1 that is attributed to the vanadium–
Figure 3. The recycling of the catalyst using 1b (a) or 1c (b) as the
ligand in the epoxidation of 2-methyl cinnamyl alcohol (yellow: yield,
blue: eetrans value).
remain connected to the brucite layers through electrostatic
interactions, and this is not only supported by the FT-IR
spectra (see Figure S3 in the Supporting Information) but also
by the good recovery of a-amino acids in solid catalysts. For
the pseudo-homogeneous catalyst using 1c as the ligand, the
fraction of colloidized particles is hard to recover, with 2.7%
and 3.2% vanadium detected in the filtrate after first and
third catalytic run, respectively, thus giving rise to a slight
reduction of the yield. The vanadium was recovered in 90%
after three catalytic runs. Regardless, the ee value for the
trans isomer was maintained at the same level in the recycle
runs (Figure 3b). It was more difficult to recover ligands 2c
and 3c because of their thorough delamination. The difficulty
in recovery of the colloidal particles is not a new finding,
therefore we obtained 2c and 3c by performing the delami-
nation in water to facilitate a liquid/liquid separation.
Aqueous medium has been recognized as a green solvent to
offer numerous advantages over traditional organic sol-
vents.[13i,17] The asymmetric epoxidation of 2-methyl cinnamyl
alcohol was thus performed in aqueous medium using
cheaper, water-soluble VOSO4 as the source of the catalytic
center. As can be seen in Table 3, excellent catalytic activity
was achieved in both the homogeneous (2a and 3a) and
liquid/liquid catalytic systems (2c and 3c). These results are
similar to those obtained by using formamide as the solvent,
that is, attachment of the a-amino acids to the brucite-like
À
nitrogen vibration, and a red-shift of the signals for the C N
À
stretching vibration and N H out-of-plane vibration. The
bands at 1593 and 1405 cmÀ1 are assigned to the asymmetric
and symmetric vibrations, respectively, of the l-glutamate
carbonyl group and are preserved after introduction of the
vanadium, thus indicating the vanadium coordination did not
interrupt the electrostatic interactions between the interlayer
l-glutamate and the brucite-like layer. The introduction of
vanadium results in a shift of the 13C NMR signal correspond-
ing to the l-glutamate carboxylate carbon atom from d = 180
to 185 ppm (see Figure S6 in the Supporting Information). In
the 51V NMR spectra (see Figure S7 in the Supporting
Information), the central 51V signal assigned to the character-
istic vanadium/l-glutamate complex[18] is clearly observed in
each case. The replacement of the proton with the brucite-like
layer causes the central signal of 51V to shift downfield from
d = À553 to À520 or À525 ppm. According to the epoxidation
mechanism previously proposed,[19] the huge and rigid
brucite-like layer, bearing a-amino acid anions as chelating
moieties for vanadium as the catalytic site, is supposed to
provide the necessary rigidity and more effective steric effects
to direct the approach of and restrict the coordination of
allylic alcohol molecules to the activated vanadium centers.
The DFT[20] calculations reveal that there is hydrogen
Table 3: Asymmetric epoxidation of 2-methyl cinnamyl alcohol in
aqueous medium.[a]
Ligand[b]
t [min]
Yield[c]
[%]
cis/trans
ee [%][d]
trans[f]
cis[e]
2a
720
720
1440
1440
1440
720
93
81
96
97
98
91
86
95
98
96
16:84
7:93
6:94
3:97
2:98
30:70
8:92
7:93
13:87
9:91
23
60
56
47
33
6
49
48
19
22
14
99
99
97
98
38
99
99
98
97
2c (fresh)
2c (fresh)
2c (2nd run)
2c (3rd run)
3a
3c (fresh)
3c (fresh)
3c (2nd run)
3c (3rd run)
=
bonding between V O and the brucite-like layer (O3···H) in
addition to those between the brucite-like layer and COOÀ of
l-glutamate (O1···H and O2···H). The O3···H, having a length
and angle of 1.80 ꢀ and 1618, respectively, as calculated,
enhances the rigidity of the linkage of brucite-like layers to l-
glutamate. In the epoxidation, the convex access of the
catalyzed substrate (isoprenol for example) to form the
transition-state B (TSB) leading to the S-configured product
alters the parameters of O3···H to 2.01 ꢀ and 1388 (Figure 4),
thus nearly breaking O3···H. The concave access of isoprenol
resulting in the transition-state A (TSA) leading to the R-
configured product increases the O3···H distance to 2.10 ꢀ but
makes no noticeable alteration of the O3···H angle (1648
versus 1618), and thereby facilitates the formation of more
720
1440
1440
1440
[a] All data were reproduced at least twice and reported as an average.
3.0 mol% VOSO4 and 3.0 mol% a-amino acid were used. The reaction
was performed at 208C. [b] Delamination was performed in water.
[c] Yield of the epoxy alcohol isolated after chromatographic purification.
[d] Determined on a Varian Prostar 210 HPLC using a Daicel Chiral AD-H
column. [e] The excess enantiomer is (2R, 3S). [f] The excess enantiomer
is (2R, 3R).
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Representative experimental procedure for catalytic epoxida-
tions: 5.0 mL of VO(OiPr)3 (0.02 mmol) and 15 mL (equivalent to
0.02 mmol of l-glutamate) of ligand 1c (1 mgmLÀ1 in formamide)
was dispersed in CH2Cl2 (1 mL) and HCONH2 (6 mL). After the
mixture was stirred for 1 h at 208C, 0.6 mL of TBHP (1.59 mmol) in
CH2Cl2 and 110 mL of 2-methyl cinnamyl alcohol (0.71 mmol) were
added. Otherwise, 3.6 mg of VOSO4·H2O (0.02 mmol) and 21 mL
(equivalent to 0.02 mmol of l-serine) of ligand 3c (1 mgmLÀ1 in
water) was stirred for 2 h at 208C, and then 0.6 mL of TBHP
(1.59 mmol) in CH2Cl2 and 110 mL of 2-methyl cinnamyl alcohol
(0.71 mmol) were added.
Figure 4. The calculated energies and primary bonding distances for
transition-states A (a) and B (b) in the vanadium-catalyzed epoxidation
of isoprenol using 1c as ligand.
Received: May 31, 2011
Published online: August 26, 2011
Keywords: asymmetric catalysis · enantioselectivity ·
layered compounds · ligand design · supported catalysts
.
hydrogen bonds between isoprenol and the brucite-like layer
(O4···H: in 1.97 ꢀ and 1768). As a result, the energy gap
between transition states
A
and
B
increases from
7.95 kJmolÀ1 for the homogeneous system to 14.33 kJmolÀ1
for the heterogeneous system, thus accounting for the
improvement in the ee value.
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In conclusion, we have demonstrated in this work that an
impressive enhancement of enantioselectivity of the vana-
dium-catalyzed epoxidation of allylic alcohols can be ach-
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preserving the enhancement of the enantioselectivity. 3) In
using environmentally friendly water as the solvent, the
colloidal catalyst can be directly separated from the products
by simple liquid/liquid separation. The catalysts were there-
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enantioselectivity. Although success is reported here for a-
amino acids and nanosheets of LDHs, the method promises to
be suitable for a variety of other chiral ligands and inorganic
layers. The strategy proves versatile and viable for ligand
modification and enantioselectivity enhancement. Its appli-
cation to a variety of asymmetric reactions and detailed
investigation into the mechanism both deserve additional
attention.
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Experimental Section
The attachment of l-glutamate (1a) to the brucite-like layer was
carried out by ion exchange using Zn/Al-NO3 LDHs as precursor.
The attachment of l-alanine (2a) and l-serine (3a) to the Zn/Al
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molar ratio was manipulated around 2:1 in each case. The resulting
chemical composition was calculated as [Zn0.60Al0.41(OH)2](l-
glutamateÀ)0.17(CO3)0.03·0.78H2O,
[Zn0.61Al0.39(OH)2](alanineÀ)0.13
[Zn0.63Al0.37(OH)2]
(serineÀ)0.13
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(NO3À
)
)
0.26·0.42H2O,
or
(NO3
0.24·0.24H2O according to ICP and C, H, N elemental analysis
results.
Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2011, 50, 9171 –9176
ꢀ 2011 Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim
www.angewandte.org
9175

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