Chitosan as a chiral ligand and organocatalyst: preparation conditions–property–catalytic performance relationships

Abstract

Chitosan is an abundant and renewable chirality source of natural origin. The effect of the preparation conditions by alkaline hydrolysis of chitin on the properties of chitosan was studied. The materials obtained were used as ligands in the ruthenium-catalysed asymmetric transfer hydrogenation of aromatic prochiral ketones and oxidative kinetic resolution of benzylic alcohols as well as organocatalysts in the Michael addition of isobutyraldehyde to N-substituted maleimides. The degrees of deacetylation of the prepared materials were determined by ¹H NMR, FT-IR and UV-vis spectroscopy, the molecular weights by viscosity measurements, their crystallinity by WAXRD, and their morphology by SEM and TEM investigations. The materials were also characterized by Raman spectroscopy. The biopolymers which have molecular weights in a narrow (200–230 kDa) range and appropriate (80–95%) degrees of deacetylation were the most efficient ligands in the enantioselective transfer hydrogenation, whereas in the oxidative kinetic resolution the activity of the complexes and the stereoselectivity increased with the degree of deacetylation. The chirality of the chitosan was sufficient to obtain enantioselection in the Michael addition of isobutyraldehyde to maleimides in the aqueous phase. Interestingly, the biopolymer afforded the opposite enantiomer in excess compared to the monomer, D-glucosamine. In this reaction, good correlation between the degree of deacetylation and the catalytic activity was found. These results are novel steps in the application of this natural, biocompatible and biodegradable polymer in developing environmentally benign methods for the production of optically pure fine chemicals.