PaaSiCats: novel polyamino acid catalysts

The abilities of five polyamino acids (Paa's) to catalyse the asymmetric epoxidation of enones 1-7 under three sets of reaction conditions were compared: polyneo-pentylglycine and polyleucine showed distinct advantages in most circumstances. All five polymers were adsorbed onto silica and from this further study, immobilised polyneo-pentylglycine (PLNSi) and polyleucine (PLLSi) were shown to be the catalysts of choice for the asymmetric epoxidation of less-reactive alpha,beta-unsaturated ketones.