Open Access Article
Dequan
Zhang
a,
Jialin
Wen
*ab and
Xumu
Zhang
*a
aDepartment of Chemistry, Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Catalysis, Southern University of Science and Technology, Shenzhen, 518055, China. E-mail: zhangxm@sustech.edu.cn
bAcademy for Advanced Interdisciplinary Studies, Southern University of Science and Technology, Shenzhen, 518055, China. E-mail: wenjl@sustech.edu.cn
First published on 6th June 2022
The construction of chiral quaternary carbon stereocenters has been a long-standing challenge in organic chemistry. Particularly, α-quaternary amino acids that are of high importance in biochemistry still lack a straightforward synthetic method. We here reported a hydroformylation approach to access chiral quaternary stereogenic centers, which has been a long-standing challenge in transition metal catalysis. α,β-Unsaturated carboxylic acid derivatives undergo hydroformylation with a rhodium catalyst to generate an α-quaternary stereocenter under mild conditions. By using this method, a variety of chiral α-quaternary amino acids could be synthesized with satisfactory enantioselectivity. In-depth investigation revealed that the regioselectivity is dramatically influenced by the electronic properties of the substituents attached to the target C
C bond. By applying NMR and DFT analyses, the chiral environment of a rhodium/Yanphos complex was depicted, based on which a substrate-catalyst interaction model was proposed.
C bond has been a practical method to realize the hydrofunctionalization of olefins (Fig. 1a).5 Its asymmetric version, asymmetric hydroformylation (AHF), has been a powerful tool to build chiral molecules.6,7 We envisaged that rhodium-catalyzed AHF shall render a practical way to access quaternary stereogenic centers. However, AHF reactions were recognized as a formidable research area as many challenges remain in the way of this approach. Chemo-, regio- and enantioselectivity must be taken into consideration in a single catalytic reaction.8 According to Keulemans' empirical rule that claims “in hydroformylation, formyl groups are not produced at quaternary carbon centers”,9 the formation of quaternary carbon via hydroformylation has intrinsic difficulties. The selectivity and reactivity of hydroformylation reactions are very sensitive to steric and electronic properties of the substituents attached to C
C bonds.8 To date, the construction of chiral quaternary aldehydes via AHF has been an unsolved problem.
Amino acids that bear a chiral quaternary stereogenic center at the α-position have great importance in biochemistry. As a family of non-natural amino acids, not only could they play an irreplaceable role in the modification of conformation of peptides and proteins,10 but they are also key intermediates for the synthesis of many bioactive compounds. The development of a methodology to approach chiral α-quaternary amino acids has been a long-standing challenge for organic synthesis11–16 and has still drawn great attention in the recent decade.17 The most widely applied approach has been the diastereoselective synthesis via amino acid templates (Fig. 1b).18 Such a strategy relies on the nucleophilicity of the enolate after deprotonation of the α-proton and the chiral environment created by either the concept of self-regeneration of stereocenters,19 memory of chirality20 or the introduction of an external chiral auxiliary.18 However, the formation of cyclic intermediates and removal of the protecting groups require extra steps, which lowers the atom efficiency and raises the cost. Therefore, a straightforward approach to chiral α-quaternary amino acids has always been in demand.
An early attempt was made by Gladiali and Pinna to carry out AHF of methyl N-acetamidoacrylate (MAA) with DIOP under rather harsh conditions, but the enantioselectivity was not satisfactory.21 The development toward the construction of chiral quaternary stereocenters via AHF has been slow,22 and only scattered reports by Alper,23 Buchwald,24 our group,25 and Landis and Schomaker26 were documented. Gratefully, previous investigation by the Landis group27–30 and our group31 of the regioselectivity of AHF provided guidance to tackle the challenges, and functionalized olefins that bear an electron-withdrawing group (EWG) show preference for the formation of branched aldehydes. The huge demand for direct construction of chiral α-quaternary amino acids and our expertise in AHF reactions spurred us to continuously explore this field to construct chiral quaternary stereocenters. Dehydroamino acid derivatives such as MAA are readily available fine chemicals. The straightforward transformation of such a type of functionalized olefins into versatile chiral α-quaternary amino acid synthons is of high synthetic value (Fig. 1c).
:
21 er) were observed. In comparison, Ph-BPE that has been applied in AHF reactions gave almost a racemic aldehyde. However, using the other diastereomer of Bn-Yanphos (R,R), though with increasing steric hindrance, did not improve the results (entry 3 and 4). Gratefully, the application of sterically demanding (R,S)-DTBM-Bn-Yanphos gave satisfactory chemoselectivity (96% aldehyde), regioselectivity (all quaternary carbon) and enantioselectivity (93
:
7 er). Based on this performance, further condition screening led to the following conclusion: lowering the ligand ratio to L/Rh = 1.5
:
1 and reducing the reaction temperature and pressure to 90 °C and 5 bar gave the best results. The increase in the yield of aldehyde in a lower syngas atmosphere (entry 9, 11 and 12) could rationalized by the assumption that lowering CO partial pressure could cause the higher concentration of the reactive (P–P)Rh(CO)H species.41 The formation of the hydrogenation product was suppressed at 3% in the reaction mixture, while the enantioselectivity reached 96
:
4 er.
:
5 er) and trifluoroacetyl (2i, 80% yield, 96
:
4 er) were introduced onto the substrate, the yield and er value were of the same level as that of the model substrate. The introduction of bulkier tert-butyl carbamate (Boc, 2g) and the tosyl (2h) group made the reaction slightly sluggish, and slightly eroded er values were observed in each case (93
:
7 er for both). Apart from enamines, enol esters were also tested (2j to 2l). The corresponding quaternary aldehydes were exclusively obtained. Lactams not only are an important core in many bioactive molecules42 but could also readily transform into amino acids and peptides.43,44 The exocyclic C
C bond at the α-position of lactams was hydroformylated to quaternary aldehydes. β-Lactams that bear a four-membered ring were converted to aldehydes with high enantioselectivities (2m and 2n, 95
:
5 er), although the conversions still have room for improvement. To our surprise, better performances were observed for such cyclic substrates with a Rh/Ph-BPE complex (2m and 2n, 97
:
3 er, higher yields). Upon expansion of the ring size to five- or six-membered ring, both yields and enantioselectivities were increased (2o to 2s). Exocyclic conjugated lactams with both alkyl and aryl groups on the nitrogen atom gave chiral aldehydes with an α-quaternary stereocenter in high yields. Unfortunately, at this stage, only 1,1-disubstituted olefins could be efficiently hydroformylated under the optimized conditions, while 1,1,2-trisubstituted olefins gave poor reactivities. A further optimization of conditions seemed to be needed for such type of substrates. At the stage of initial screening of trisubstituted olefins, only exocyclic lactone 1t (E-configuration) yielded quaternary aldehyde 2t efficiently with a high er value.
The α-formyl-α-amino acid derivative, as a versatile synthon, could be readily converted to other value-added chiral molecules bearing a quaternary carbon (Fig. 2a). The reduction of 2a yielded α-methyl serine, a valuable artificial amino acid.45 The reaction of this quaternary aldehyde with a phosphorus ylide yielded α-vinyl amino acid, a chiral compound that not only plays a role as a building block for more complicated artificial amino acids but also functions as a bioactive molecule.46 Tumor imaging reagents such as IVAIB47 and BVAIB48 could be rapidly prepared from 2a. To our delight, the optical purity was not eroded in the above-mentioned transformations. β-Lactam 2n easily undergoes olefination and hydrolysis to form β-amino acid with an α-quaternary stereocenter (Fig. 2b). In order to further demonstrate the synthetic potential of this method, such a synthetic method was coupled with other transformation such as Wittig olefination. A conjugated carboxylate (2u) with a quaternary stereocenter could be readily synthesized via AHF and the sequential Wittig reaction from methyl 2-fluoroacrylate (1u). Satisfactory yield (72%) and enantioselectivities (97
:
3 er) were recorded after two steps (Fig. 2c).
C bond generates an alkyl rhodium species, which is the regio- and enantiodetermining step. If an electron-withdrawing group (EWG) is incorporated, the alkyl rhodium intermediate could be stabilized via both inductive and resonance effects (Fig. 3a). In our previous study, AHF of 1,1-disubstituted olefin 1-methylstyrene yielded a linear aldehyde. In sharp comparison, AHF with MAA that is also categorized as 1,1-disubstituted olefin resulted in the formation of a branched aldehyde exclusively. Intrigued by such distinction, we chose methyl 1-arylacrylate as a target to study how the electronic properties influence the regioselectivity of hydroformylation. A series of substrates with a para-substituent underwent AHF under the same reaction conditions (Fig. 3b). The Hammett study revealed a positive linear correlation between the σp value and
that demonstrates the relative rates in the formation of both regiomers. The slope (0.866) of this regression line demonstrated high sensitivity of the regioselectivity towards the electronic properties of the substituents. In a study of the influence of the substrate steric effect on the regioselectivity, no conclusive impact from the steric hindrance was found on the selectivity (see the ESI† for details). Therefore, the electronic features of the substituents attached on the C
C bond crucially contribute to determining the position where the formyl group attaches.
| Entry | Ligand | Rh/L | T (°C) | P CO/PH2 (bar) | Conversion | er of 2a (R : S) |
|
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2a | 3a | ||||||
| 1 | (S,R)-Bn-Yanphos | 1 : 3 |
100 | 5/5 | 85% | 15% | 21 : 79 |
| 2 | (S,S)-Ph-BPE | 1 : 3 |
100 | 5/5 | 76% | 24% | 52 : 48 |
| 3 | (S,S)-DTB-Bn-Yanphos | 1 : 3 |
100 | 5/5 | 53% | 47% | 66 : 34 |
| 4 | (R,R)-DTBM-Bn-Yanphos | 1 : 3 |
100 | 5/5 | 39% | 61% | 31 : 69 |
| 5 | (R,S)-DTBM-Bn-Yanphos | 1 : 3 |
100 | 5/5 | 96% | 4% | 93.5 : 6.5 |
| 6 | (R,S)-DTBM-Bn-Yanphos | 1 : 2 |
100 | 5/5 | 96% | 4% | 93 : 7 |
| 7 | (R,S)-DTBM-Bn-Yanphos | 1 : 1.5 |
100 | 5/5 | 97% | 3% | 94 : 6 |
| 8 | (R,S)-DTBM-Bn-Yanphos | 1 : 1.2 |
100 | 5/5 | 93% | 4% | 91 : 9 |
| 9 | (R,S)-DTBM-Bn-Yanphos | 1 : 1.5 |
90 | 5/5 | 89% | 3% | 96 : 4 |
| 10 | (R,S)-DTBM-Bn-Yanphos | 1 : 1.5 |
80 | 5/5 | 75% | 2% | 96 : 4 |
| 11 | (R,S)-DTBM-Bn-Yanphos | 1 : 1.5 |
90 | 10/10 | 52% | 3% | 96 : 4 |
| 12 | (R,S)-DTBM-Bn-Yanphos | 1 : 1.5 |
90 | 2.5/2.5 | 91% | 3% | 96 : 4 |
| DIOP | 2,3-O-Isopropylidene-2,3-dihydroxy-1,4-bis(diphenylphosphino)butane |
| NMR | Nuclear magnetic resonance |
| DFT | Density functional theory |
| er | Enantiomeric ratio |
| NOE | Nuclear overhauser effect |
Footnote |
| † Electronic supplementary information (ESI) available. CCDC 2121822. For ESI and crystallographic data in CIF or other electronic format see https://doi.org/10.1039/d2sc02139k |
| This journal is © The Royal Society of Chemistry 2022 |