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Vanadium-catalyzed asymmetric cyanohydrin synthesis
1Department of Chemistry, King's College, Strand, London, WC2R 2LS, U. K. and A.N. Nesmeyanov Institute of Organoelement Compounds, Russian Academy of Sciences, 117813 Vavilov 28, Moscow, Russia.
Organic Letters
|June 7, 2000
Abstract:
Based on a mechanistic understanding of asymmetric cyanohydrin synthesis catalyzed by chiral titanium-salen complexes, a new catalyst based on vanadium(IV) has been developed. The chiral (salen)VO catalyst is more enantioselective than the titanium-based systems, 0.1 mol % of the catalyst being sufficient to convert aromatic and aliphatic aldehydes into the corresponding trimethylsilyl ethers of cyanohydrins with 68-95% enantiomeric excess at room temperature.