Direct Organocatalytic Chemoselective Reductive Alkylation of Chiral 2-Aroylcyclopropanecarbaldehydes: Scope and Applications.

Abstract

We developed a simple and practically feasible protocol for the chemoselective coupling of optically active functionally rich 2-aroylcyclopropanecarbaldehydes with various CH acids or active methylene compounds under 10 mol % of (s)-proline in the presence of Hantzsch ester as a hydrogen source through a three-component reductive alkylation reaction. The metal-free, organocatalytic selective reductive C-C coupling method has wide advantages/applications like no epimerization, no ring opening, high carbonyl control, and large substrate scope, generating only monoalkylated 2-aroylcyclopropanes, and the resulting chiral products can be synthons in medicinal to material chemistry. We have also shown the synthetic applications of chiral CH-acid-containing 2-aroylcyclopropanes 5 by transforming them into the interesting molecules of pyrimidine analogues 8, dimethyl cyclopropane-malonates 9, functionally rich dihydropyran 10, cyclopropane-alcohols 11, and cyclopropane-olefins 12/13. Many of these chiral products 5-13 can serve as excellent building blocks for the synthesis of value-added small molecules, natural products, pharmaceuticals, and their analogues.