Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2019, 15, 955–962.
rations (Table 1, entries 13 and 14). For organocatalyst 6, the University [University Research Facility for Chemical and
enantioselectivity was not as good as when using benzaldehyde Environmental Analysis (UCEA)]. G.-L. Law gratefully
acknowledges financial support from Natural Science Founda-
tion of China (NSFC, 21875201)
In order to explore the scope of the present oxo-DA reaction,
we next examined the reactions of other aldehydes with 2 as the
catalyst. With less bulky aliphatic aldehydes, which only have
hydrogens at the alpha positions such as isobutyraldehyde, 3,3-
dimethylbutyraldehyde, cyclohexylaldehyde and 2-phenylacet-
aldehyde, decrease in the yields and enantioselectivities were
observed (Table 1, entries 16–19). With another aromatic alde-
hyde, 2-naphthaldehyde, a racemic product was obtained.
ORCID® iDs
References
1. Jørgensen, K. A. Angew. Chem., Int. Ed. 2000, 39, 3558–3588.
Conclusion
2. Corey, E. J. Angew. Chem., Int. Ed. 2002, 41, 1650–1667.
Three new chiral atropisomeric biphenyl diols 3, 4 and 6 with
axial chiralities controlled by their corresponding additional
asymmetric carbon centers were synthesized; despite having the
same biphenyl scaffold, their highly enantioselective intermedi-
ates b, d and g were obtained with different strategies: asym-
metric reduction with oxazaborate catalyst for 3, chiral resolu-
tion with (R)-menthyl chloroformate for 4 and chiral resolution
with (1S)-camphanic chloride for 6. Crystal structures revealed
that the presence and absence of additional CF3 substituents in 3
and 6 led to very different structures, as 3 forms helical supra-
molecular structure with continuous and alternative inter- and
intramolecular hydrogen bonds, whereas 6 forms a monomer
without intermolecular hydrogen bonds for supramolecular for-
mation. Together with compounds 1, 2 and 5, all were found to
be active organocatalysts in oxo-DA reactions, with 2 resulting
in the highest reactivity and enantioselectivity with trimethylac-
etaldehyde as a substrate. Opposite absolute configurations of
the catalytic products of benzaldehyde from atropisomers of 5
showed that axial chirality contributes significantly to high en-
antioselectivities. Further works on organocatalyst optimization
with different substituents are ongoing in our group and further
experiments are underway to develop the use of these diols for
other catalytic reactions.
3. Jørgensen, K. A. Eur. J. Org. Chem. 2004, 2093–2102.
4. Du, H.; Ding, K. Diels-Alder and Hetero-Diels-Alder Reactions. In
Comprehensive Enantioselective Organocatalysis: Catalysts,
Reactions, and Applications; Dalko, P. I., Ed.; Wiley-VCH: Weinheim,
5. Ishihara, K.; Sakakura, A. Hetero-Diels–Alder Reactions. In
Comprehensive Organic Synthesis, 2nd ed.; Knochel, P.;
Molander, G. A., Eds.; Elsevier: Amsterdam, 2014; Vol. 5, pp 409–465.
6. Desimoni, G.; Faita, G.; Quadrelli, P. Chem. Rev. 2018, 118,
7. Núñez, M. G.; García, P.; Moro, R. F.; Díez, D. Tetrahedron 2010, 66,
8. Taheri kal Koshvandi, A.; Heravi, M. M. Tetrahedron: Asymmetry 2017,
9. Nicolaou, K. C.; Snyder, S. A.; Montagnon, T.; Vassilikogiannakis, G.
Angew. Chem., Int. Ed. 2002, 41, 1668–1698.
10.Eschenbrenner-Lux, V.; Kumar, K.; Waldmann, H.
Angew. Chem., Int. Ed. 2014, 53, 11146–11157.
11.Chakraborty, T. K.; Tapadar, S. Tetrahedron Lett. 2003, 44,
12.N'Zoutani, M.-A.; Pancrazi, A.; Ardisson, J. Synlett 2001, 769–772.
Supporting Information
13.Audrain, H.; Jørgensen, K. A. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2000, 122,
Supporting Information File 1
Experimental data.
14.Yasui, K.; Tamura, Y.; Nakatani, T.; Kawada, K.; Ohtani, M.
15.Bednarski, M.; Danishefsky, S. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 1983, 105,
16.Keck, G. E.; Li, X.-Y.; Krishnamurthy, D. J. Org. Chem. 1995, 60,
17.Maruoka, K.; Itoh, T.; Shirasaka, T.; Yamamoto, H. J. Am. Chem. Soc.
Acknowledgements
The authors gratefully acknowledge the fundings from
the Basic Research Program of Shenzhen (No.
JCYJ20160531184120814), State Key Laboratory of Chemical
Biology and Drug Discovery, and The Hong Kong Polytechnic
18.Doyle, M. P.; Phillips, I. M.; Hu, W. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2001, 123,
19.Togni, A. Organometallics 1990, 9, 3106–3113.
961