Functionalized N‐Heterocyclic Carbene Ligands for Dual Enantioselective Control in the Cu‐Catalyzed Conjugate Addition of Dialkylzinc Compounds to Acyclic Enones

Abstract

AbstractA series of highly tunable, functionalized azolium compounds have been synthesized from chiral α‐amino acid derivatives such as β‐amino alcohols or α‐amino esters. The combination of a Cu salt and a chiral azolium efficiently facilitated the asymmetric conjugate addition (ACA) reactions of acyclic enones with dialkylzinc under ambient conditions without temperature control. Of the (hydroxy amide)‐functionalized azolium ligand precursors, which were derived from β‐amino alcohols, an azolium salt containing a tert‐butyl group as the stereodirecting group was found to be the best choice of ligand. Ligand screening revealed that the use of an azolium salt containing a sterically bulky alkyl substituent such as N‐CHRR′ on the azolium ring led to a marked increase in the enantioselectivity of the ACA reaction. Thus, a new efficient (hydroxy amide)‐functionalized azolium ligand precursor such as 26, which was prepared from 1‐(diphenylmethyl)benzimidazole and (S)‐tert‐leucinol, has been developed. The treatment of benzalacetone (30) with Et2Zn in the presence of catalytic amounts of [Cu(OTf)]2(C6H6) and 26 at room temperature gave the corresponding 1,4‐adduct 31 with excellent enantioselectivity (92 % ee). On the other hand, the enantioselectivity of the ACA reactions of acyclic enones with dialkylzinc was successfully reversed by the use of (ester amide)‐functionalized azolium salts, which were obtained from α‐amino esters. Several functionalized azolium ligand precursors from readily available serine esters have been designed and synthesized. Finally, it was found that 30 could react with Et2Zn under the influence of a bis(hexafluoroacetylacetonato)copper(II) salt and C2‐symmetric azolium salt 36 to afford ent‐31 in almost quantitative yield with 89 % ee. A plausible reaction mechanism for the switching of the stereoselectivity in the ACA reaction by these two functionalized azolium compounds is described.