Diastereoselective formation of 18-membered ring BINOL-hydrogen phosphonate dimers - Quasi-covalent hydrogen bonds?

Abstract

Diastereoselective syntheses of the unusual dimers, 4-heptyl-2-(2′-hydroxy-binaphthyl)hydrogen phosphonate (5) and the cyclohexyl analogue (7), are achieved by hydrolysis of 4-(3,5-dioxa-4-phosphacyclohepta[2,1-α;3,4-α′]-dinaphthalene-4-yloxy)heptane (4) and the cyclohexane analogue (6), respectively. Two out of eight possible pairs of monomers units are involved in the stereoselective formation of the dimer 5a of configuration BINOLR-PS:BINOLR-PS; this is determined by X-ray crystallographic data, which reveal a centrosymmetric, 18-membered ring structure with Ci symmetry, consisting of two monomers strongly hydrogen-bonded between the oxygen of P=O units and hydroxyl hydrogen atoms. Mass spectrometric, melting point, and thermal decomposition point data, as well as NMR data, support the presence of strong, quasi-covalent hydrogen bonds. Computational analysis suggests that the diastereoselectivity is controlled by molecularly constrained geometry of the monomer. Compound 7, although not characterized crystallographically, appears to be analogous to 5.Key words: 18-membered ring, phosphonate dimer, diastereoselectivity, hydrogen-bonds, computational analysis.