Catalytic asymmetric chiral lithium amide-promoted epoxide rearrangement: A NMR spectroscopic and kinetic investigation

Article abstract of DOI:10.1016/j.tetasy.2010.10.034

The lithium amide derived from the chiral diamine (1R,3S,4S)-3-(1- pyrrolidinyl)methyl-2-azabicyclo[2.2.1]heptane, has been reported to catalytically deprotonate cyclohexene oxide and other epoxides, yielding chiral allylic alcohols in excellent enantiomeric excess. In this work, ⁶Li, ¹H and ¹³C NMR spectroscopy have been used to study the aggregation of the chiral lithium amide in THF and the influence on the aggregation by the addition of additives, such as 1,8-diazabicyclo-[5.4.0]undec- 7-ene (DBU). The activated complex under catalytic deprotonation of cyclohexene oxide, that is, with excess Li-DBU and free DBU, is built from one monomer of the chiral lithium amide, one molecule of epoxide and one additional molecule of DBU. The reaction order (-0.97) obtained for the bulk base Li-DBU shows an inverse dependence on the concentration, suggesting a deaggregation of the initial mixed dimer to a monomer-based transition state containing a monomer of the lithium amide.