Angewandte
Chemie
Table 1: Catalytic asymmetric addition of phenylboronic acid (2m) to
cyclic N-sulfonyl aldimine 1a and ketimine 1b.[a]
(OCOCF3)2 and (S)-iPr-phox efficiently catalyzed the phenyl-
ation of aldimine 1a in CF3CH2OH at 808C, but its catalytic
activity was lower for ketimine 1b, giving a modest yield
(58%) of (R)-3bm although the enantioselectivity was high
(99.8% ee) (entry 4). Cationic palladium bisphosphine com-
plexes[13] generated by mixing PdCl2[(S,S)-chiraphos] and
PdCl2[(S)-binap] with AgBF4 were less catalytically active
than that with the phosphine-oxazoline, (S)-iPr-phox, as
a ligand. They catalyzed the phenylation of aldimine 1a to
some extent, but did not convert ketimine 1b (entries 5 and
6). Palladium complexes with the chiral oxazoline-pyridine
ligand (S)-iPr-pyrox and its derivatives, have been reported by
Zhang and co-workers to be catalytically active for the
addition to five-membered-ring ketimines.[6] In our hands, the
palladium catalyst system described by Zhang and co-work-
ers, Pd(OCOCF3)2 and (S)-iPr-pyrox in CF3CH2OH, did not
catalyze the phenylation of ketimine 1b well,[14,15] whereas it
was highly active in the phenylation of aldimine 1a (entry 7).
A cationic palladium complex generated by the addition of
AgBF4 to PdCl2[(S)-iPr-pyrox] also catalyzed the addition to
aldimine 1a very efficiently, but was not active for ketimine
1b in either CF3CH2OH or dichloroethane (entries 8 and 9).
Chiral diene/rhodium catalysts, which we previously reported
to be the most active in the asymmetric arylation of ketimines
including the five-membered-ring ketimines, catalyzed the
phenylation of aldimine 1a to give 3am with high ee and
a quantitative yield (entries 10 and 11). They also catalyzed
the asymmetric phenylation of ketimine 1b with high
enantioselectivity, but the yields of 3bm are not as high as
those obtained with the present cationic palladium/(S)-iPr-
phox catalyst. The binap–rhodium catalyst was less active
than the diene–rhodium as was reported previously[3a]
(entry 12).
By monitoring the reaction progress of the palladium-
catalyzed addition of boron reagents to ketimine 1b to
compare the Pd/phox catalyst with the Pd/pyrox catalyst
(entry 1 versus 7), we found that the low yield with the Pd/
pyrox catalyst is mainly due to the short lifetime of the
catalyst system. Thus, the reaction with Pd/pyrox catalyst gave
7% yield of the product 3bm within 10 min, but the yield did
not increase after a reaction time of 10 min. In contrast, the
Pd/phox catalyst was found to keep its high catalytic activity
for at least one hour to give a high yield of 3bm.
The cationic palladium catalyst generated from PdCl2[(S)-
iPr-phox] and AgBF4 was widely applicable in the asymmetric
addition of arylboronic acids to the methyl-substituted
ketimine 1b (Table 2). The addition of phenylboronic acids
with a substituent (methyl, phenyl, phenoxy, and halides) at
the para position gave the corresponding arylation products in
high enantioselectivities (> 98% ee) and yields (entries 3, 5–
8). For those arylboronic acids which are not reactive enough
to give high yields of the arylation products under the
standard conditions (conditions A), the use of AgSbF6 and
K3PO4 as additives (conditions B) increased the chemical
yields and maintained the high enantioselectivity. The effects
of the additives are summarized in entries 12–15 for the
addition of 3-MeOC6H4B(OH)2 (2w) to ketimine 1b. The
reaction under the reaction conditions A (AgBF4) gave only
a modest yield (56%) of the arylation product 3bw, though
Catalyst [5 mol%]
additives
Solvent
3am
3bm
T [8C], t [h] Yield[b] (ee[c]) Yield[b] (ee[c])
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
PdCl2[(S)-iPr-phox]
AgBF4
PdCl2[(S)-iPr-phox]
ClCH2CH2Cl 99%
99%
65–70, 12 (99.6% ee, R) (99.5% ee, R)
ClCH2CH2Cl 0%
65–70, 12 (–)
ClCH2CH2Cl 10%
65–70, 12 (–)
CF3CH2OH 99%
80, 20 (92% ee, R)
0%
(–)
0%
(–)
58%
(99.8% ee, R)
0%
(–)
0%
(–)
7%
(–)
0%
(–)
0%
(–)
76%
PdCl2[(S)-iPr-phox]
AgOTf
Pd(OCOCF3)2
(S)-iPr-phox
PdCl2[(S,S)-chiraphos] ClCH2CH2Cl 50%
AgBF4
PdCl2[(S)-binap]
AgBF4
Pd(OCOCF3)2
(S)-iPr-pyrox
PdCl2[(S)-iPr-pyrox]
AgBF4
65–70, 12
(84% ee, S)
ClCH2CH2Cl 42%
65–70, 12
(94% ee, S)
CF3CH2OH 90%
80, 20
(68% ee, R)
CF3CH2OH 99%
80, 20
(77% ee, R)
PdCl2[(S)-iPr-pyrox]
AgBF4
ClCH2CH2Cl 99%
65–70, 12
(80% ee, R)
99%
10 [RhCl((R,R)-Ph-bod)]2 dioxane
K3PO4, t-amyl alcohol 60, 12
11 [RhCl((R)-diene*)]2
K3PO4, t-amyl alcohol 60, 12
12 [RhCl((S)-binap)]2 dioxane
K3PO4, t-amyl alcohol 60, 12
(98.0% ee, R) (97.0% ee, R)
99% 30%
(99.6% ee, R) (99.3% ee, R)
dioxane
26%
(89% ee, S)
<3%
(–)
[a] Reaction conditions: 1a (0.10 mmol), 2m (0.20 mmol), catalyst
(5 mol%), additive, solvent (1.0 mL) at a given temperature for 12 h.
[b] Yield of isolated 3am or 3bm. [c] Determined by HPLC analysis with
a chiral stationary phase. The absolute configurations of 3am and 3bm
were determined by comparison of their optical rotations with those
reported.[5a,6]
were successfully applied to the reaction of ketimine 1b,
which gave the corresponding phenylation product (R)-3bm[6]
in 99.5% ee and a quantitative yield (entry 1). The generation
of the cationic palladium species is essential for the high
catalytic activity. In the absence of AgBF4, no phenylation
was observed for either aldimine 1a or ketimine 1b (entry 2).
Using AgOTf as the silver salt is not a good choice and
resulted in a low yield (10%) of 3am and no reaction to 3bm
(entry 3).
A palladium complex generated from Pd-
Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2014, 53, 9936 –9939
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