Novel Chiral PyridineN-Oxide Ligands and Their Application in the Enantioselective Catalytic Reduction of Ketones and the Addition of Diethylzinc to Aldehydes

Abstract

Starting from picolinic acids 3 and 4, the amino acid-derived 2-aminoacylpyridine N-oxides 1a,c–e and 2,6-bis(aminoacyl)pyridine N-oxides 2b–e can be prepared in two steps by the coupling of picolinic acid N-oxides 5 and 6 under Appel conditions with the corresponding L-amino acid ester or (1R,2S)-norephedrine. Compounds 1 and 2 were used as chiral ligands in two different asymmetric catalyses. In the catalytic addition of diethylzinc to benzaldehyde 11, low enantioselectivities (2–29% ee) were obtained regardless of the amino acid moiety. However, the corresponding 2,6-bis(aminoacyl)pyridines 7 and 8 led to increased ee values (55% ee). In the catalytic reduction of ketones 9a–c to alcohols 10a–c low enantioselectivities were observed for alanine-, valine-, and leucine-derived N-oxides 1a,c and 2b,c. An increase of selectivity was observed for bis-methionine ligand 2d (32–38% ee) relative to that of mono-methionine ligand 1d (7–16% ee). However, mono-norephedrine ligand 1e (≤ 64% ee) and the corresponding bis-norephedrine ligand 2e (≤ 51% ee) displayed the highest selectivities. The influence of the N-oxide moiety on the enantioselectivity was demonstrated by the observation that 2,6-bis(aminoacyl)pyridines 7 and 8 gave much lower selectivities than the corresponding pyridine N-oxides 2d and e.