BINAP (2,2′-bis(diphenylphosphino)-1,1′-binaphthyl) is an organophosphorus compound. This chiral diphosphine ligand is widely used in asymmetric synthesis. It consists of a pair of 2-diphenylphosphinonaphthyl groups linked at the 1 and 1′ positions. This C2-symmetric framework lacks a stereogenic atom, but has axial chirality due to restricted rotation (atropisomerism). The barrier to racemization is high due to steric hindrance, which limits rotation about the bond linking the naphthyl rings. The dihedral angle between the naphthyl groups is approximately 90°. The natural bite angle is 93°.
Enantioselective synthesis, also called asymmetric synthesis, is a form of chemical synthesis. It is defined by IUPAC as "a chemical reaction in which one or more new elements of chirality are formed in a substrate molecule and which produces the stereoisomeric products in unequal amounts."
Thiourea is an organosulfur compound with the formula SC(NH2)2 and the structure H2N−C(=S)−NH2. It is structurally similar to urea, except that the oxygen atom is replaced by a sulfur atom ; however, the properties of urea and thiourea differ significantly. Thiourea is a reagent in organic synthesis. Thioureas are a broad class of compounds with the general structure R2N−C(=S)−NR2.
In organic chemistry, the Michael reaction or Michael 1,4 addition is a reaction between a Michael donor and a Michael acceptor to produce a Michael adduct by creating a carbon-carbon bond at the acceptor's β-carbon. It belongs to the larger class of conjugate additions and is widely used for the mild formation of carbon-carbon bonds.
The Strecker amino acid synthesis, also known simply as the Strecker synthesis, is a method for the synthesis of amino acids by the reaction of an aldehyde with cyanide in the presence of ammonia. The condensation reaction yields an α-aminonitrile, which is subsequently hydrolyzed to give the desired amino acid. The method is used for the commercial production of racemic methionine from methional.
In chemistry, transfer hydrogenation is a chemical reaction involving the addition of hydrogen to a compound from a source other than molecular H2. It is applied in laboratory and industrial organic synthesis to saturate organic compounds and reduce ketones to alcohols, and imines to amines. It avoids the need for high-pressure molecular H2 used in conventional hydrogenation. Transfer hydrogenation usually occurs at mild temperature and pressure conditions using organic or organometallic catalysts, many of which are chiral, allowing efficient asymmetric synthesis. It uses hydrogen donor compounds such as formic acid, isopropanol or dihydroanthracene, dehydrogenating them to CO2, acetone, or anthracene respectively. Often, the donor molecules also function as solvents for the reaction. A large scale application of transfer hydrogenation is coal liquefaction using "donor solvents" such as tetralin.
In organic chemistry, thioureas are members of a family of organosulfur compounds with the formula S=C(NR2)2 and structure R2N−C(=S)−NR2. The parent member of this class of compounds is thiourea. Substituted thioureas are found in several commercial chemicals.
In organic chemistry, organocatalysis is a form of catalysis in which the rate of a chemical reaction is increased by an organic catalyst. This "organocatalyst" consists of carbon, hydrogen, sulfur and other nonmetal elements found in organic compounds. Because of their similarity in composition and description, they are often mistaken as a misnomer for enzymes due to their comparable effects on reaction rates and forms of catalysis involved.
The Hajos–Parrish–Eder–Sauer–Wiechert reaction in organic chemistry is a proline catalysed asymmetric aldol reaction. The reaction is named after the principal investigators of the two groups who reported it simultaneously: Zoltan Hajos and David Parrish from Hoffmann-La Roche and Rudolf Wiechert and co-workers from Schering AG. Discovered in the 1970s the original Hajos-Parrish catalytic procedure – shown in the reaction equation, leading to the optically active bicyclic ketol – paved the way of asymmetric organocatalysis. The Eder-Sauer-Wiechert modification lead directly to the optically active enedione, through the loss of water from the bicyclic ketol shown in figure.
Asymmetric hydrogenation is a chemical reaction that adds two atoms of hydrogen to a target (substrate) molecule with three-dimensional spatial selectivity. Critically, this selectivity does not come from the target molecule itself, but from other reagents or catalysts present in the reaction. This allows spatial information to transfer from one molecule to the target, forming the product as a single enantiomer. The chiral information is most commonly contained in a catalyst and, in this case, the information in a single molecule of catalyst may be transferred to many substrate molecules, amplifying the amount of chiral information present. Similar processes occur in nature, where a chiral molecule like an enzyme can catalyse the introduction of a chiral centre to give a product as a single enantiomer, such as amino acids, that a cell needs to function. By imitating this process, chemists can generate many novel synthetic molecules that interact with biological systems in specific ways, leading to new pharmaceutical agents and agrochemicals. The importance of asymmetric hydrogenation in both academia and industry contributed to two of its pioneers — William Standish Knowles and Ryōji Noyori — being collectively awarded one half of the 2001 Nobel Prize in Chemistry.
Cyclodiphosphazanes are saturated four membered P2N2 ring systems and one of the major classes of cyclic phosphazene compounds. Bis(chloro)cyclodiphosphazanes, (cis-[ClP(μ-NR)]2) are important starting compounds for synthesizing a variety of cyclodiphosphazane derivatives by nucleophilic substitution reactions; are prepared by reaction of phosphorus trichloride (PCl3) with a primary amine (RNH2) or amine hydrochlorides (RNH3Cl).
In organic chemistry, the Baylis–Hillman, Morita–Baylis–Hillman, or MBH reaction is a carbon-carbon bond-forming reaction between an activated alkene and a carbon electrophile in the presence of a nucleophilic catalyst, such as a tertiary amine or phosphine. The product is densely functionalized, joining the alkene at the α-position to a reduced form of the electrophile.
Hydrogen-bond catalysis is a type of organocatalysis that relies on use of hydrogen bonding interactions to accelerate and control organic reactions. In biological systems, hydrogen bonding plays a key role in many enzymatic reactions, both in orienting the substrate molecules and lowering barriers to reaction. However, chemists have only recently attempted to harness the power of using hydrogen bonds to perform catalysis, and the field is relatively undeveloped compared to research in Lewis acid catalysis.
Proline organocatalysis is the use of proline as an organocatalyst in organic chemistry. This theme is often considered the starting point for the area of organocatalysis, even though early discoveries went unappreciated. Modifications, such as MacMillan’s catalyst and Jorgensen's catalysts, proceed with excellent stereocontrol.
Ugi’s amine is a chemical compound named for the chemist who first reported its synthesis in 1970, Ivar Ugi. It is a ferrocene derivative. Since its first report, Ugi’s amine has found extensive use as the synthetic precursor to a large number of metal ligands that bear planar chirality. These ligands have since found extensive use in a variety of catalytic reactions. The compound may exist in either the 1S or 1R isomer, both of which have synthetic utility and are commercially available. Most notably, it is the synthetic precursor to the Josiphos class of ligands.
Eric Meggers is a German chemist and professor of organic chemistry and chemical biology at the University of Marburg, Germany. His research currently focuses on the design of chiral catalysts for stereoselective synthesis.
The nitro-Mannich reaction is the nucleophilic addition of a nitroalkane to an imine, resulting in the formation of a beta-nitroamine. With the reaction involving the addition of an acidic carbon nucleophile to a carbon-heteroatom double bond, the nitro-Mannich reaction is related to some of the most fundamental carbon-carbon bond forming reactions in organic chemistry, including the aldol reaction, Henry reaction and Mannich reaction.
Benjamin List is a German chemist who is one of the directors of the Max Planck Institute for Coal Research and professor of organic chemistry at the University of Cologne. He co-developed organocatalysis, a method of accelerating chemical reactions and making them more efficient. He shared the 2021 Nobel Prize in Chemistry with David MacMillan "for the development of asymmetric organocatalysis".
The ketimine Mannich reaction is an asymmetric synthetic technique using differences in starting material to push a Mannich reaction to create an enantiomeric product with steric and electronic effects, through the creation of a ketimine group. Typically, this is done with a reaction with proline or another nitrogen-containing heterocycle, which control chirality with that of the catalyst. This has been theorized to be caused by the restriction of undesired (E)-isomer by preventing the ketone from accessing non-reactive tautomers. Generally, a Mannich reaction is the combination of an amine, a ketone with a β-acidic proton and aldehyde to create a condensed product in a β-addition to the ketone. This occurs through an attack on the ketone with a suitable catalytic-amine unto its electron-starved carbon, from which an imine is created. This then undergoes electrophilic addition with a compound containing an acidic proton. It is theoretically possible for either of the carbonyl-containing molecules to create diastereomers, but with the addition of catalysts which restrict addition as of the enamine creation, it is possible to extract a single product with limited purification steps and in some cases as reported by List et al.; practical one-pot syntheses are possible. The process of selecting a carbonyl-group gives the reaction a direct versus indirect distinction, wherein the latter case represents pre-formed products restricting the reaction's pathway and the other does not. Ketimines selects a reaction group, and circumvent a requirement for indirect pathways.
René Peters is a German chemist and since 2008 Professor of Organic Chemistry at the University of Stuttgart.
2003: Takemoto's bifunctional chiral thiourea derivative, catalysis of asymmetric Michael- and Aza-Henry reactions. [13]
2004: Nagasawa's chiral bis-thiourea organocatalyst, catalysis of asymmetric Baylis-Hillman reactions. [14]
2005: Nagasawa's bifunctional thiourea functionalized guanidine, asymmetric catalysis of Henry(Nitroaldol)reactions. [15]
2005: Ricci's chiral thiourea derivative with additional hydroxy-group, enantioselective Friedel-Crafts alkylation of indols with nitroalkenes. [16]
2005: Wei Wang's bifunctional binaphthyl-thiourea derivative, asymmetric catalysis of Morita-Baylis-Hillman reactions. [17]
2005: Soos's, Connon and Dobson's bifunctional thiourea functionalized Cinchona alkaloid, asymmetric additions of nitroalkanes to chalcones [18] as well as malonates to nitroalkenes [19]
2006: Yong Tang's chiral bifunctional pyrrolidine-thiourea, enantioselective Michael additions of cyclohexanone to nitroolefins. [20]
2006: Berkessel's chiral isophoronediamine-derived bisthiourea derivative, catalysis of asymmetric Morita-Baylis-Hillman reactions. [21]
2006: Takemoto's PEG-bound chiral thiourea, asymmetric catalysis of (tandem-) Michael reactions of trans"-β-nitrostyrene, aza-Henry reactions. [22]
2007: Kotke/Schreiner, polystyrene-bound, recoverable and reusable thiourea derivative for organocatalytic tetrahydropyranylation of alcohols. [3]
2007: Wanka/Schreiner, chiral peptidic adamantane-based thiourea, catalysis of Morita-Baylis-Hillman reactions. [23]
2007: Takemoto's chelating bifunctional hydroxy-thiourea for enantioselective Petasis-type reaction of quinolines. [24]
