Rh-Catalyzed Direct Enantioselective Alkynylation of α-Ketiminoesters

Advances in Chiral Pincer Complexes: Insights and Applications in Catalytic Asymmetric Reactions

Chiral pincer complexes, characterized by their rigid tridentate coordination framework, have emerged as powerful catalysts in asymmetric synthesis. This review provides a comprehensive overview of recent advancements in the development of chiral pincer-type ligands and their corresponding transition metal complexes. We highlight the latest progress in their application across a range of catalytic asymmetric reactions, including the (transfer) hydrogenation of polar and non-polar bonds, hydrophosphination, alkynylation, Friedel-Crafts reactions, enantioselective reductive cyclization of alkynyl-tethered cyclohexadienones, enantioselective hydrosilylation, as well as Aza-Morita-Baylis-Hillman reactions. The structural rigidity and tunability of chiral pincer complexes enable precise control over stereoselectivity, resulting in high enantioselectivity and efficiency in complex molecular transformations. As the field advances, innovations in ligand design and the exploration of new metal centers are expected to expand the scope and utility of these catalysts, bearing significant implications for the synthesis of enantioenriched compounds in pharmaceuticals, materials science, and beyond.

Redox-Active α-Amino-CF3 Reagents: Developing and Applications in Ni-Catalyzed Reductive Cross-Coupling

α-Amino-CF3 compounds are widely employed in bio- and pharmaceutical chemistry for improved stability and bioactivities. Traditional methods often face challenges with functional group tolerance and lack a general approach for late-stage functionalization. Herein, we report a new type of redox-active α-amino-CF3 reagents, easily prepared from trifluoro acetaldehyde hydrates. These α-amino-CF3 reagents can serve as versatile building blocks for coupling with alkynyl bromides, aryl bromides, and enol triflates under nickel catalysis.

Copper-Catalyzed Direct Asymmetric Vinylogous Mannich Reaction between β,γ-Alkynyl-α-ketimino Esters and β,γ-Unsaturated N-Acylpyrazoles

We report a Cu(I)-Ph-BPE-catalyzed asymmetric vinylogous Mannich reaction of β,γ-alkynyl-α-ketimino esters with β,γ-unsaturated N-acylpyrazoles. In this process, the Cu(I)-Ph-BPE catalyst activates the β,γ-alkynyl-α-ketimino ester through N,O-coordination, enabling the subsequent nucleophilic addition of a dienolate generated from the β,γ-unsaturated N-acylpyrazole via α-position deprotonation with a catalytic amount of tertiary amine. The reactions gave useful products with very high enantioselectivities. A broad range of substrates with various substituents are tolerated in this reaction. The versatility of this method was demonstrated by a gram-scale reaction, and subsequent elaboration of the Mannich adducts was also provided.

Challenges and recent advancements in the synthesis of α,α-disubstituted α-amino acids

α,α-Disubstituted α-amino acids (α-AAs) have improved properties compared to other types of amino acids. They serve as modifiers of peptide conformation and as precursors of bioactive compounds. Therefore, it has been a long-standing goal to construct this highly valuable scaffold efficiently in organic synthesis and drug discovery. However, access to α,α-disubstituted α-AAs is highly challenging and largely unexplored due to their steric constraints. To overcome these, remarkable advances have been made in the last decades. Emerging strategies such as synergistic enantioselective catalysis, visible-light-mediated photocatalysis, metal-free methodologies and CO2 fixation offer new avenues to access the challenging synthesis of α,α-disubstituted α-AAs and continuously bring additional contributions to this field. This review article aims to provide an overview of the recent advancements since 2015 and discuss existing challenges for the synthesis of α,α-disubstituted α-AAs and their derivatives.

Enantioselective Alkynylation of 2-Aryl-3H-indol-3-ones via Cooperative Catalysis of Copper/Chiral Phosphoric Acid

A facile enantioselective alkynylation of cyclic ketimines attached to a neutral functional group utilizing the dual Cu(I)-CPA catalysis is described. The strategy of the alkynylation of 2-aryl-3H-indol-3-one directly to chiral propargylic amines containing indolin-3-one moiety in good yields and enantioselectivities. Moreover, gram-scale synthesis of chiral propargylamines based C2-quaternary indolin-3-ones was performed. The synthetic applications were confirmed by transformations of the products with no decrease in the yield and enantioselectivity.

Photoredox Microfluidic Synthesis of Trifluoromethylated Amino Acids

Fluorinated amino acids are a class of highly valuable building blocks that are widely employed in biological science and pharmaceutical industry for improved stability, activity, and folding property of proteins. However, the synthetic approach has conventionally been constrained by harsh conditions and limited substrate range. We demonstrate a general synthetic protocol for photoinduced α-CF₃ amino acids using continuous flow technology that benefits from enhanced fusion and precise control of reaction time, making it potentially useful in large-scale peptide synthesis.

Fe-Catalyzed Alkylazidation of α-Trifluoromethylalkenes: An Access to Quaternary Stereocenters Containing CF3 and N3 Groups

A concise Fe-catalyzed alkylazidation of α-trifluoromethylalkenes via a C-C bond cleavage/radical addition/azidation cascade is described. This protocol features a broad substrate scope, excellent functional group compatibility, and the ability to be performed on a gram scale, thus offering a practical and step-economic approach to the synthetically useful tertiary α-trifluoromethyl azides.

Recent advances in the synthesis of fluorinated amino acids and peptides

The site-selective modification of amino acids, peptides, and proteins has always been an intensive topic in organic synthesis, medicinal chemistry, and chemical biology due to the vital role of amino acids in life. Among the developed methods, the site-selective introduction of fluorine functionalities into amino acids and peptides has emerged as a useful approach to change their physicochemical and biological properties. With the increasing demand for life science, the direct fluorination/fluoroalkylation of proteins has also received increasing attention because of the unique properties of fluorine atom(s) that can change the protein structure, increase their lipophilicity, and enable fluorine functionality as a biological tracer or probe for chemical biology studies. In this feature article, we summarized the recent advances in the synthesis of fluorinated amino acids and peptides, wherein two strategies have been discussed. One is based on the fluorinated building blocks to prepare fluorinated amino acids and peptides with diversified structures, including the transformations of fluorinated imines and nickel-catalyzed dicarbofunctionalization of alkenes with bromodifluoroacetate and its derivatives; the other is direct fluorination/fluoroakylation of amino acids, peptides, and proteins, in which the selective transformations of the functional groups on serine, threonine, tyrosine, tryptophan, and cysteine lead to a wide range of fluorinated α-amino acids, peptides, and proteins, featuring synthetic convenience and late-stage modification of biomacromolecules. These two strategies complement each other, wherein transition-metal catalysis and new fluoroalkylating reagents provide powerful tools to selectively access fluorinated amino acids, peptides, and proteins, showing the prospect of medicinal chemistry and chemical biology.

Direct Enantioselective Addition of Alkynes to Imines by a Highly Efficient Palladacycle Catalyst

Enantiopure propargylic amines are highly valuable synthetic building blocks. Much effort has been devoted to develop methods for their preparation. The arguably most important strategy is the 1,2-addition of alkynes to imines. Despite remarkable progress, the known methods using Zn and Cu catalysts suffer from the need for high catalyst loadings, typically ranging from 2-60 mol % for neutral aldimine substrates. Here we report a planar chiral Pd complex acting as very efficient catalyst for direct asymmetric alkyne additions to imines, requiring very low catalyst loadings. Turnover numbers of up to 8700 were accomplished. Our investigation suggests that a Pd-acetylide complex is generated as a catalytically relevant intermediate by the aid of an acac ligand acting as internal catalytic base. It is shown that the catalyst is quite stable under the reaction conditions and that product inhibition is not an issue. A total of 39 examples is shown which all yielded almost enantiopure products.

Mechanistic Study of Asymmetric Alkynylation of Isatin-Derived Ketimine Mediated by a Copper/Guanidine Catalyst

In this work, we performed a mechanistic study of asymmetric alkynylation of isatin-derived N-Boc ketimine that was first reported by Feng, Liu, and co-workers (Chem. Commun. 2018, 54, 678-681). Guanidine-amide promoted the formation of highly nucleophilic copper acetylene species by abstracting the terminal proton of phenylacetylene with an imine moiety. The guanidinium salt-Cu(I) complex was the most active species in the addition of the C═N bond, in which copper acetylene coordinated to the O atom of the amide moiety, and the isatin-derived ketimine substrate was activated by hydrogen bonding as well as tert-butoxycarbonyl···Cu(I) coordination. Due to weak interaction between Cu(I) and the Ph group in the amide of guanidine, as well as the repulsion between the tert-butyl group in ketimine and the cyclohexyl group in guanidine, the copper acetylene preferred to attack isatin-derived ketimine from the re-face, leading to the S-configuration product with excellent stereoselectivity. The affinity of the counterion for the Cu(I) center in the copper salt affected the deprotonation of phenylacetylene and the formation of guanidinium salt active species. In contrast to CuBr and CuCl, the combination of CuI with aniline-derived guanidine-amide exhibited high catalytic activity and a chiral induction effect, contributing to a high turnover frequency (9.70 × 10^-4 s^-1) in catalysis and ee%.

Enantioselective Friedel-Crafts Alkylation Reaction of Pyrroles with N-Unprotected Alkynyl Trifluoromethyl Ketimines

Developed herein is an enantioselective Friedel-Crafts alkylation reaction of N-unprotected alkynyl trifluoromethyl ketimines with pyrroles catalyzed by chiral phosphoric acid to furnish chiral primary α-trifluoromethyl-α-(2-pyrrolyl)propargylamines with high enantioselectivity. Transformation of the alkynyl group of the adducts afforded optically active α-trifluoromethylated amines bearing various substituents such as alkyl, alkenyl, enyne, and triazole without loss of optical purity.

Amide phosphonium salt catalyzed enantioselective Mannich addition of isoxazole-based nucleophiles to β,γ-alkynyl-α-ketimino esters

An enantioselective Mannich addition of 3,5-disubstituted 4-nitroisoxazoles to β,γ-alkynyl-α-ketimino esters promoted by an amide phosphonium salt-based catalyst has been developed. N-Cbz-protected ketimino esters with various aryl substituents attached to the alkyne unit were reacted with a series of isoxazoles with different substitution patterns. Chiral tertiary propargylic amine products were obtained with moderate to good yields and enantioselectivities. TIPS- and cyclopropyl-substituted alkynyl ketimines were also examined in the current system and the desired products were obtained with moderate yields and enantioselectivities. The potential scalability and utility of the current protocol were demonstrated by carrying out a relatively larger scale reaction followed by further transformations.

Organocatalytic asymmetric synthesis of quaternary α-isoxazole–α-alkynyl amino acid derivatives

Chiral phosphoric acid catalyzed enantioselective addition of 5-amino-isoxazoles with β,γ-alkynyl-α-ketimino esters provided good yields and excellent enantioselectivities.

Cu(I)-Catalyzed gem-Aminoalkynylation of Diazo Compounds: Synthesis of Fluorinated Propargylic Amines

The gem-aminoalkynylation of fluorinated diazo compounds catalyzed by a simple Cu(I) salt is described. This three-component reaction allows the synthesis of propargylic amines with broad functional group tolerance. Both electron-rich and electron-poor anilines can be used as nucleophiles and alkyl-, aryl-, and silyl-substituted EthynylBenziodoXoles (EBX) as electrophiles.

Further Developments and Applications of Oxazoline-Containing Ligands in Asymmetric Catalysis

The chiral oxazoline motif is present in many ligands that have been extensively applied in a series of important metal-catalyzed enantioselective reactions. This Review aims to provide a comprehensive overview of the most significant applications of oxazoline-containing ligands reported in the literature starting from 2009 until the end of 2018. The ligands are classified not by the reaction to which their metal complexes have been applied but by the nature of the denticity, chirality, and donor atoms involved. As a result, the continued development of ligand architectural design from mono(oxazolines), to bis(oxazolines), to tris(oxazolines) and tetra(oxazolines) and variations thereof can be more easily monitored by the reader. In addition, the key transition states of selected asymmetric transformations will be given to illustrate the features that give rise to high levels of asymmetric induction. As a further aid to the reader, we summarize the majority of schemes with representative examples that highlight the variation in % yields and % ees for carefully selected substrates. This Review should be of particular interest to the experts in the field but also serve as a useful starting point to new researchers in this area. It is hoped that this Review will stimulate both the development/design of new ligands and their applications in novel metal-catalyzed asymmetric transformations.

Visible-Light-Mediated Carbonyl Alkylative Amination to All-Alkyl α-Tertiary Amino Acid Derivatives

The all-alkyl α-tertiary amino acid scaffold represents an important structural feature in many biologically and pharmaceutically relevant molecules. Syntheses of this class of molecule, however, often involve multiple steps and require activating auxiliary groups on the nitrogen atom or tailored building blocks. Here, we report a straightforward, single-step, and modular methodology for the synthesis of all-alkyl α-tertiary amino esters. This new strategy uses visible light and a silane reductant to bring about a carbonyl alkylative amination reaction that combines a wide range of primary amines, α-ketoesters, and alkyl iodides to form functionally diverse all-alkyl α-tertiary amino esters. Brønsted acid-mediated in situ condensation of primary amine and α-ketoester delivers the corresponding ketiminium species, which undergoes rapid 1,2-addition of an alkyl radical (generated from an alkyl iodide by the action of visible light and silane reductant) to form an aminium radical cation. Upon a polarity-matched and irreversible hydrogen atom transfer from electron rich silane, the electrophilic aminium radical cation is converted to an all-alkyl α-tertiary amino ester product. The benign nature of this process allows for broad scope in all three components and generates structurally and functionally diverse suite of α-tertiary amino esters that will likely have widespread use in academic and industrial settings.

Asymmetric Mannich reactions of (S)-N-tert-butylsulfinyl-3,3,3-trifluoroacetaldimines with yne nucleophiles

In the present work, arylethynes were studied as new C-nucleophiles in the asymmetric Mannich addition reactions with (S)-N-tert-butylsulfinyl-3,3,3-trifluoroacetaldimine. The reactions were conducted under operationally convenient conditions affording the corresponding Mannich adducts with up to 87% yield and 70:30 diastereoselectivity. The isomeric products can be separated using regular column chromatography to afford diastereomerically pure compounds. The purified Mannich addition products were deprotected to give the target enantiomerically pure trifluoromethylpropargylamines. A mechanistic rationale for the observed stereochemical outcome is discussed.

Strategies for the Catalytic Enantioselective Synthesis of α-Trifluoromethyl Amines

The exploitation of the α-trifluoromethylamino group as an amide surrogate in peptidomimetics and drug candidates has been on the rise. In a large number of these cases, this moiety bears stereochemistry with the stereochemical identity having important consequences on numerous molecular properties, such as the potency of the compound. Yet, the majority of stereoselective syntheses of α-CF3 amines rely on diastereoselective couplings with chiral reagents. Concurrent with the rapid expansion of fluorine into pharmaceuticals has been the development of catalytic enantioselective means of preparing α-trifluoromethyl amines. In this work, we outline the strategies that have been employed for accessing these enantioenriched amines, including normal polarity approaches and several recent developments in imine umpolung transformations.

Catalytic asymmetric synthesis of quaternary trifluoromethyl α- to ε-amino acid derivatives via umpolung allylation/2-aza-Cope rearrangement

In this study, we developed an efficient Ir-catalyzed cascade umpolung allylation/2-aza-Cope rearrangement of tertiary α-trifluoromethyl α-amino acid derivatives for the preparation of a variety of quaternary α-trifluoromethyl α-amino acids in high yields with excellent enantioselectivities. The umpolung reactivity empowered by the activation of the key isatin-ketoimine moiety obviates the intractable enantioselectivity control in Pd-catalyzed asymmetric linear α-allylation. In combination with quasi parallel kinetic resolution or kinetic resolution, the generality of this method is further demonstrated by the first preparation of enantioenriched quaternary trifluoromethyl β-, γ-, δ- and ε-amino acid derivatives.

A Broad Substrate Scope of Aza-Friedel-Crafts Alkylation for the Synthesis of Quaternary α-Amino Esters

A versatile synthetic protocol of aza-Friedel-Crafts alkylation has been developed for the synthesis of quaternary α-amino esters. This operationally simple alkylation proceeds under ambient conditions with high efficiency, regioselectivity, and an exceptionally broad scope of arene nucleophiles. A key feature of this alkylation is the role associated with the silver(I) salt counteranions liberated during the reaction. Taking advantage of a phase-transfer counteranion/Brønsted acid pair mechanism, we also report a catalytic enantioselective example of the reaction.

Asymmetric synthesis of quaternary α-trifluoromethyl α-amino acids by Ir-catalyzed allylation followed by kinetic resolution

Facile access to quaternary α-trifluoromethyl α-amino acids has been developed. This sequential reaction involves an Ir-catalyzed asymmetric allylation of α-trifluoromethyl aldimine esters followed by an unprecedented kinetic resolution.

Enantioselective Catalytic Allylation of Acyclic Ketiminoesters: Synthesis of α-Fully-Substituted Amino Esters

We report the first direct catalytic enantioselective allylation of acyclic α-ketiminoesters to afford α-allyl-α-aryl and α-allyl-α-trifluoromethyl amino esters in excellent isolated yield (91-99%) and with high optical purity (90-99+% ee). The allylation proceeds on a gram scale with 5-10 mol % of indium(I) iodide and commercially available BOX-type ligands. The allylated products are easily converted to enantiomerically enriched α-substituted proline derivatives.

Pd-Catalyzed Allylation of Imines to Access α-CF3-Substituted α-Amino Acid Derivatives

We herein report a high yielding protocol for the direct α-allylation of easily accessible trifluoropyruvate-derived imines using Pd-catalysis. The reaction gives access to a variety of different α-allylated-α-CF3-amino acids in a straightforward manner, starting from commercially available trifluoropyruvate. We also provide a proof-of-concept for an enantioselective protocol (up to er = 75:25) by using chiral phosphane ligands.

Successive addition of two different Grignard reagents to nitriles: access to α,α-disubstituted propargylamine derivatives

The successive addition of two different Grignard reagents to acyl cyanohydrins was performed with success by taking advantage of the low reactivity of alkynyl Grignard reagents. The experimental conditions were adjusted so that they were not reactive during the first addition step, but reactive only in the second one. The synthetic utility of the prepared compounds was validated by the preparation of chiral quaternary α-amino acids.

Copper/guanidine-catalyzed asymmetric alkynylation of isatin-derived ketimines

Asymmetric alkynylation of isatin-derived ketimines was achieved using an easily available chiral guanidine ligand in combination with CuI under mild reaction conditions.

Highly Enantioselective Synthesis of Propargyl Amides through Rh-Catalyzed Asymmetric Hydroalkynylation of Enamides: Scope, Mechanism, and Origin of Selectivity

Chiral propargyl amides are particularly useful structural units in organic synthesis. The enantioselective synthesis of propargyl amide is highly desirable. Conventional approach involves the use of a stoichiometric amount of metal reagent or chiral auxiliary. In comparison, direct alkynylation with terminal alkyne is attractive because it avoids the use of stoichiometric organometallic reagent. The asymmetric coupling of aldehyde, amine, and alkyne (A³-coupling) provides an efficient method for the synthesis of N-alkyl and N-aryl-substituted propargyl amines, but this strategy is not amenable for the direct enantioselective synthesis of propargyl amide. We have developed a new strategy and report here a Rh-catalyzed asymmetric hydroalkynylation of enamides. Alkynylations occur regioselectively at the α position of an enamide to produce chiral propargyl amides. High yield and enantioselectivity were observed. Previous alkynylation methods to prepare chiral propargyl amine involve the nucleophilic addition to an electron-deficient imine. In contrast, our current approach proceeds through regioselective hydroalkynylation of an electron-rich alkene. Kinetic studies indicated that migratory insertion of the enamide to the rhodium hydride is turnover limiting. Computational studies revealed the origin of regio- and enantioselectivities. This novel strategy provides an efficient method to access chiral propargyl amides directly from terminal alkynes.

Direct Access to N-Unprotected α- and/or β-Tetrasubstituted Amino Acid Esters via Direct Catalytic Mannich-Type Reactions Using N-Unprotected Trifluoromethyl Ketimines

Direct catalytic C-C bond-forming addition to N-unprotected ketimines is an efficient and straightforward method of synthesizing N-unprotected tetrasubstituted amines that eliminates prior protection/deprotection steps and allows facile transformation of the products. Despite its advantages, however, N-unprotected ketimines have difficulties in C-C bond-forming reactions, and only a limited number of reactions and substrates are reported compared with their N-protected counterparts. Herein we report that N-unprotected trifluoromethyl ketimines are effective for C-C bond-forming reactions using Mannich-type reactions as a model case. We demonstrate that Lewis acid catalysis was effective for promoting reactions with various N-unprotected trifluoromethyl ketimines, and thiourea organocatalysis was effective for promoting highly enantioselective reactions with various carbonyl nucleophiles, providing direct access to various N-unprotected α- and/or β-tetrasubstituted amino acid esters. Furthermore, direct construction of vicinal tetrasubstituted chiral carbon stereocenters was achieved for the first time in a highly enantio- and diastereoselective manner. These results demonstrate the potential of N-unprotected ketimines as substrates applicable to many other addition reactions.

Organocatalytic Stereoconvergent Synthesis of α-CF3 Amides: Triketopiperazines and Their Heterocyclic Metamorphosis

The highly enantioselective alkylation of α-CF₃ enolates, generated from triketopiperazines, has been accomplished through use of a bifunctional thiourea organocatalyst to facilitate 1,4-addition to varied enone acceptors. On treatment with appropriate nitrogen nucleophiles, the chiral triketopiperazine products undergo a metamorphosis, to provide novel fused heterocyclic lactams such as extended pyrazolopyrimidines.

Copper-catalyzed asymmetric alkynylation of cyclic N-sulfonyl ketimines

A Cu-catalyzed asymmetric alkynylation of cyclic N-sulfonyl ketimines was developed, providing the corresponding chiral α-tertiary amines with up to 98% ee.