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Enzymatic Cascade Reactions for the Synthesis of Chiral Amino Alcohols from L-lysine
Published on: February 16, 2018
Chiral Phosphoric Acid Catalyzed Asymmetric Synthesis of Hetero-triarylmethanes from Racemic Indolyl Alcohols
Caizhen Yue1, Fei Na1, Xiantao Fang1
1Institute for Molecular Design and Synthesis, School of Pharmaceutical Science and Technology, Health Science Platform, Tianjin University, Tianjin, 300072, China.
Abstract:
The direct enantioselective 1,4- and 1,8-arylations of 7-methide-7H-indoles and 6-methide-6H-indoles, respectively, generated in situ from diarylmethanols, with electron-rich arenes as nucleophiles, has been achieved in the presence of chiral phosphoric acids (CPAs). These two remote activation protocols provide an efficient approach for the construction of diverse hetero-triarylmethanes in high yields (up to 97 %) and with excellent enantioselectivities (up to 96 %). Mechanistically inspired experiments tentatively indicate that the catalytic enantioselective 1,4-addition as well as the formal SN 1 substitution could proceed efficiently in the similar catalytic systems. Furthermore, the modification of the catalytic system and diarylmethanol structure successfully deviates the reactivity toward a remote, highly enantioselective 1,8-arylation reaction. This flexible activation mode and novel reactivity of diarylmethanols expand the synthetic potential of chiral phosphoric acids.
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