Enantiomeric impurities in chiral catalysts, auxiliaries, synthons and resolving agents. Part 2

Abstract

The enantiomeric purity of reagents used in asymmetric synthesis is of fundamental importance when evaluating the selectivity of a reaction and the product purity. In this work, 109 chiral reagents (many recently introduced) are assayed. Approximately 64% of these reagents had moderate to high levels of enantiomeric impurities (i.e. from >0.1% to <16%). The type of chiral reagents assayed and used in enantioselective synthesis include: (a) metal–ligand catalysts for allylic substitutions, catalysts for addition of Grignard reagents and other additions, epoxidations and reduction of ketones and aldehydes; (b) Ru-complex auxiliaries for asymmetric cyclopropanation, as well as amine, diamine, alcohol, diol, aminoalcohol, carboxylic acid and oxazolidione auxiliaries; (c) epoxide, lactone, furanone, pyrrolidinone, nitrile, sulfoximine and carboxylic acid synthons (including malic acid, mandelic acid, lactic acid and tartaric acid); and (d) a variety of chiral resolving agents. Accurate, efficient assays for all compounds are given.