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Updated: Jan 27, 2026

Development of Heterogeneous Enantioselective Catalysts using Chiral Metal-Organic Frameworks MOFs
Published on: January 17, 2020
Highly Enantioselective Asymmetric Transfer Hydrogenation: A Practical and Scalable Method To Efficiently Access
Marie-Léonie Delcourt1, Simon Felder1, Serge Turcaud1
1Laboratoire de Chimie et Biochimie Pharmacologiques et Toxicologiques-UMR8601 CNRS, Université Paris Descartes, Sorbonne Paris Cité, UFR Biomédicale , 45 rue des Saints Pères , 75006 Paris , France.
Abstract:
We report herein a general, practical method based on asymmetric transfer hydrogenation (ATH) to control the planar chirality of a range of substituted [2.2]paracyclophanes (pCps). Our strategy enabled us to perform both the kinetic resolution (KR) of racemic compounds and the desymmetrization of centrosymmetric meso derivatives on synthetically useful scales. High selectivities (up to 99% ee) and good yields (up to 48% for the KRs and 74% for the desymmetrization reactions) could be observed for several poly-substituted paracyclophanes, including a series of bromine-containing molecules. The optimized processes could be run up to the gram scale without any loss in the reaction efficiencies. Because of its broad applicability, the ATH approach appears to be the method of choice to access planar chiral pCps in their enantiopure form.
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