Erica Wingstrand

Minor Enantiomer Recycling: Metal Catalyst, Organocatalyst and Biocatalyst Working in Concert

A minor enantiomer recycling one-pot procedure employing two reinforcing chiral catalysts has been developed. Continuous regeneration of the achiral starting material is effected via selective enzyme-catalyzed hydrolysis of the minor product enantiomer from Lewis acid-Lewis base catalyzed addition of acyl cyanides to prochiral aldehydes in a two-phase solvent system. The process provides O-acylated cyanohydrins in close to perfect enantioselectivities, higher than those obtained in the direct process, and in high yields. A combination of a (S,S)-salen Ti Lewis acid and Candida antarctica lipase B provides the products with R absolute configuration, whereas the opposite enantiomer is obtained from the (R,R)-salen Ti complex and Candida rugosa lipase.

Dual Lewis acid-Lewis base activation in enantioselective additions to aldehydes

Reaction of benzaldehyde with ethyl cyanoformate in the presence of Lewis acidic Ti(IV) complexes of bispyridylamide or salen ligands and Lewis basic amines affords the O-alkoxycarbonylated cyanohydrin. In the presence of the salen-based catalytic system, acetyl cyanide can also be added to benzaldehyde, providing a highly enantioselective direct route to the O-acetylated cyanohydrin.

Minor Enantiomer Recycling—Effect of Two Reinforcing Catalysts on Product Yield and Enantiomeric Excess

Kinetic modeling of a recycling procedure in which the minor product enantiomer from an enantioselective catalytic reaction is selectively retransformed to starting material by a second chiral catalyst demonstrates that the enantiomeric excess of the product is not affected by the relative amounts of the two catalysts, but that the yield increases when the amount of the catalyst for the product‐forming reaction is increased. The yield, but not the enantiomeric excess, is also affected by the initial substrate concentration. The recycling process is compared to sequential processes in which either the second catalyst is added after completion of the first reaction or in which the two catalysts are added simultaneously. In the sequential processes, high enantioselectivity can be obtained at the expense of product yield, whereas under recycling conditions both high enantiomeric excess and high yield can be achieved. Experimental data from a recycling procedure providing qualitative support for results from kinetic modeling are presented.