Asymmetric Henry reactions of aldehydes with various nitroalkanes catalyzed by copper(II) complexes of novel chiral N‐monoalkyl cyclohexane‐1,2‐diamines

Abstract

A number of novel chiral diamines 3, (1R,2R)‐N‐monoalkylcyclohexane‐1,2‐diamines, were designed and synthesized from trans‐cyclohexane‐1,2‐diamine and applied to the catalytic asymmetric Henry reaction of benzaldehyde and nitromethane to provide β‐nitroalcohol in high yield (up to 99%) and good enantiomeric excess (up to 89%). By using ligand (1R,2R)‐N1‐(4‐methylpentan‐2‐yl)cyclohexane‐1,2‐diamine (3g), the reaction was optimized in terms of the metal ion, temperature, solvent and base. Further experiments indicated that the complex, 3g–Cu(OAc)2, was an efficient catalyst in the asymmetric Henry reaction between different aldehydes and nitromethane, and the desired products have been obtained with high chemical yields (up to 99%) and high enantiomeric excess (up to 93%). The optimized catalyst promoted the diastereoselective Henry reaction of various aldehyde substrates and nitroalkane, which gave the corresponding anti‐selective adduct with up to 99% yield and 83:17 anti/syn selectivity. Upon scaling up to gram quantities, the β‐nitroalcohol was obtained in good yield (96%) with excellent selectivities (93% ee). The chiral induction mechanism was tentatively explained on the basis of a previously proposed transition‐state model. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.