Communication
based on a synergistic approach, in a highly diastereoselective
Cu salts did not afford the desired product (Table 1, entries 6–
9). Moreover, the addition of the base was crucial as the reac-
[
10]
manner.
Based on these previous studies and our own experience in
tion did not proceed in the absence of a base; 50 mol% Et N
3
[
11]
organocatalysis, we envisioned that the metal activation of
benzoxazoles would work in concordance with enantio-
selective organocatalytic processes in order to build a new
CÀC bond in an enantioselective manner.
was found to be the optimal base. The reaction had some dis-
advantages: the reaction time was crucial; higher reaction
times resulted in lower stereoselectivity. Thus, we assumed
that the reaction suffers from an epimerization process, afford-
ing racemic mixtures. Temperature also had a pivotal impor-
tance. To accelerate the reaction, heating was required; howev-
er, high temperatures resulted in low diastereoselectivity. After
extensive study of the reaction conditions, the best result was
obtained using acetonitrile as the solvent at 358C, 20 mol%
amine catalyst, 5 mol% Pd(OAc) , and 50 mol% Et N. We
In this study, we report the first example of enantioselective
alkylazaarene addition to enals using synergistic catalysis. This
catalytic enantioselective methodology affords highly function-
alized chiral alkylazaarenes and may potentially lead to the de-
velopment of new scaffolds of interest in the agrochemical
and pharmaceutical industries.
2
3
We focused our research efforts on the combination of the
metal-Lewis-acid activation of alkylazaarenes and the secon-
dary-amine activation of enals. The proposed mechanism is
shown in Figure 1.
tested several diphenylprolinol derivatives as the secondary
amine; the tert-butyldimethylsilyl derivatives afforded better
stereoselectivity when used with ACN as the solvent (Table 1,
entry 15).
As shown in Figure 1, we envi-
sioned that the metal Lewis
[a]
acids would interact with the al-
kylbenzoxazole (compound 1)
by coordinating to the nitrogen
of 1, thus increasing the acidity
of the a-carbon of 1. After treat-
ing the metallated alkylbenzoxa-
zole (compound 5) with a base,
Table 1. Optimization.
a
nucleophile (compound 6),
suitable to react with the elec-
trophile (enal), was obtained.
The enal reacts with the secon-
dary amine (organocatalyst) to
form the corresponding activat-
ed iminium form (compound 7).
The S catalyst efficiently shields
one face of the enal. After the
addition, the hydrolysis of com-
pound 8 affords 4 and releases
the catalyst, thus completing the
second catalytic cycle.
[
a]
[b]
[c]
[c]
Entry
Solvent
CHCl
EtOAc
toluene
DMSO
ACN
EtOAc
EtOAc
EtOAc
EtOAc
EtOAc
EtOAc
EtOAc
EtOAc
ACN
Metal
T [8C]
Yield [%]
d.r.
–
ee [%]
ee [%]
[
[
[
d]
d]
d]
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
3
Pd(OAc)
Pd(OAc)
Pd(OAc)
Pd(OAc)
Pd(OAc)
CuOTf
Yb(Otf)
Cu(OAc)
Ni(OAc)
AgOAc
–
2
2
2
2
2
40
40
40
40
40
40
40
40
40
40
40
35
35
35
n.r.
32
n.r.
72
–
–
2:1
53
–
rac.
rac.
–
47
–
rac.
rac.
–
–
[d]
1.2:1
1.3:1
[
[
[
[
d]
d]
d]
d]
85
n.r.
n.r.
n.r.
n.r.
n.r.
n.r.
80
–
–
–
–
–
–
3
-
–
–
–
–
–
–
–
2
[d]
[
3
d]
d]
e]
10
[
[
12
13
14
15
–
–
Pd(OAc)
Pd(OAc)
Pd(OAc)
2
2
2
1.2:1
61
–
88
19
–
68
First, we investigated the reac-
tion of enal 2a with 2-ethyl-6-ni-
trobenzoxazole (1a) in the pres-
ence of different metal Lewis
acids, solvents, and organic
Lewis bases. We selected com-
pound 1a because the presence
[f]
trace
84
[f,g]
1.3:1
[
a] Yields are the sum of pure isolated diastereomers; [b] d.r. calculated from the crude NMR comparing the al-
dehyde signals; [c] ee were determined by chiral HPLC analysis on the isolated products; [d] I as catalyst; [e] II
as catalyst; [f] III as catalyst; [g] reaction time 14 h.
of an electron-withdrawing group in the benzoxazole ring in-
creases the acidity of the a-CH, thus making the compound
more reactive. Moreover, the final aldehyde products decom-
pose very fast; therefore, we subjected the aldehydes in situ to
a Wittig reaction that affords bench-stable compounds. As
shown in Table 1, the best solvent for the reaction was EtOAc,
affording the final products in moderate conversions and with
With the optimized reaction conditions in hand, we investi-
gated the substrate scope of the reaction with respect to enal
derivatives. As shown in Scheme 1, the reactions afforded the
corresponding products in good yields and with good enantio-
selectivity when different aromatic enals were used (3aa–3ah).
In contrast, the reactions of aliphatic enals afforded complex
mixtures due to their decomposition (3ai). However, in almost
all the examples, the diastereoselectivity of the reaction was
very low. Better results were obtained with 4-halogen-substi-
tuted cinnamaldehydes. For example, the fluoro derivative,
3ac, was obtained in 81% yield and with 1.1:1 d.r. and 86 and
reasonable stereoselectivity. Instead, CH CN or DMSO gave
3
higher conversions but almost racemic compounds (Table 1,
entries 1–5). After screening several metals, it resulted that
only Pd(OAc) afforded the final products, while Ag, Yb, Ni, or
2
&
&
Chem. Eur. J. 2014, 20, 1 – 6
2
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