Tunable Bifunctional Phosphine–Squaramide Promoted Morita–Baylis–Hillman Reaction of N‐Alkyl Isatins with Acrylates

Abstract

AbstractA series of highly tunable bifunctional phosphine‐squaramide H‐bond donor organocatalysts 6 has been synthesized from inexpensive and commercially available β‐amino alcohols in moderate yields. Catalyst 6 f can efficiently promote the asymmetric Morita–Baylis–Hillman (MBH) reaction of N‐alkyl isatins with acrylate esters providing the chiral 3‐substituted 3‐hydroxy‐2‐oxindoles in good yields and enantioselectivities (up to 93 % yield and 95 % ee), in which the challenging substrate tert‐butyl acrylate 9 d, provided the best ee value to date. Moreover, this methodology was applied successfully in the synthesis of chiral cyclic spiropyrrolizidineoxindole and γ‐butyrolactone derivatives without enantioselectivity deterioration. The possible mechanism of this MBH reaction was also investigated by 31P NMR, ESI‐MS and KIE studies. The KIE experiments show that the electrophilic addition of N‐methyl isatin to the complex of acrylate ester and phophine‐squaramide is the rate‐determing step of the asymmetric MBH reaction.magnified image