Abstract:
This invention is to develop novel transition metal catalysts for the practical synthesis of important chiral molecules. The invention emphasizes asymmetric catalysis based on chiral amine oxazolinyl ligands and related ligands. Specially, a direct asymmetric hydrogenation system based on Ru-Ambox catalyst was discovered.

Description:
This is a continuation-in-part of Application Ser. No. 09/189,867, filed Nov. 12, 1998, and claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional Application No. 60/165,483, filed Nov. 15, 1999, all of which are incorporated herein by reference in its entirety. Government funding was provided by the National Institute of Health under NIH Fund No. RO1 GM 58832-01A1. 
    
    
     SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
                              This invention covers several new families of chiral amine oxazolinyl ligands and related ligands for asymmetric catalysis. There are many examples of oxazolinyl ligands linked with O, N, P, S, Se, in the of the groups. Oxazolinyl groups can be easily made from chiral amino alcohols. These ligands can be used for many asymmetric catalytic reactions. For examples, chiral tridentate ligands are highly effective for Ru-catalyzed transfer hydrogenation and direct hydrogenation of ketones and imines. Many other transition metal-catalyzed reactions such as hydrogenation, hydride transfer reaction, hydrosilylation, hydroboration, hydrovinylation, hydroformylation, hydrocarboxylation, arrangement, allylic alkylation, cycloproprantion, Diels-Alder reaction, Aldol reaction, Heck reaction and Michael addition are also possible. 
     The invention covers ligands as well as procedures for asymmetric catalytic reactions. FIG. 2 describes the general structure of this ligand. In these ligands, R, R1, R2, R3, R4, R5, R6, R7, R8=H, alkyl, aryl, substituted alkyl, substituted aryl. Ring structure is also possible by linking any two R groups from R1 to R4. The ring can be alkyl, substituted alkyl, aryl, and substituted aryl. X=PR′, PH, O, S, Se, AsR′, AsH, SiR′H, GeR′H, NH, NR′, NR′2, NCOR′, NOH, NNHR′, NNHCOR′ wherein R′=alkyl, aryl, substituted alkyl, and substituted aryl, n=1, 2. 
     BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
     Molecular chirality plays an important role in science and technology. The biological activities of many pharmaceuticals, fragrances, food additives and agrochemicals are often associated with their absolute molecular configuration. While one enantiomer gives a desired biological function through interactions with natural binding sites, another enantiomer usually does not have the same function and sometimes has deleterious side effects. A growing demand in pharmaceutical industries is to market a chiral drug in enantiomerically pure form. To meet this fascinating challenge, chemists have explored many approaches for acquiring enantiomerically pure compounds ranging from optical resolution and structural modification of naturally occurring chiral substances to asymmetric catalysis using synthetic chiral catalysts and enzymes. Among these methods, asymmetric catalysis is perhaps the most efficient because a small amount of a chiral catalyst can be used to produce a large quantity of a chiral target molecule. During the last two decades, great attention has been devoted to discovering new asymmetric catalysts and more than a half-dozen commercial industrial processes have used asymmetric catalysis as the key step in the production of enantiomerically pure compounds. The worldwide sales of chiral drugs in 1994 is 45.3 billion dollars, which enjoy 27% increase from the sales in 1993 (35.6 billions). 
     Many chiral phosphines have been made to facilitate asymmetric reactions. Among these ligands, BINAP is one of the most frequently used bidentate chiral phosphines. The axially dissymmetric, fully aromatic BINAP ligand has been demonstrated to be highly effective for many asymmetric reactions. Duphos and related ligands have also shown impressive enantioselectivities in numerous reactions. However, these phosphines are difficult to make and some of them are air sensitive. Recently, chiral nitrogen ligands have been extensively studied for asymmetric reactions. Particularly, oxazolinyls derived from chiral amino alcohols are popular ligands. Recognition of secondary interaction between ligands and substrates are also used to design asymmetric catalysts. For example, primary and secondary NH may form H-bond with substrates. Part of this invention is the development of transition metal complexes with families of amine oxazolinyl ligands for practical asymmetric synthesis. A Ru-ambox complex can be used as an effective catalyst for asymmetric transfer hydrogenation of ketones. The current invention emphasizes the chemistry of Ru-catalyzed direct hydrogenation of ketones, a more practical method for making chiral alcohols. In addition, many other ligands are also disclosed. 
     A variety of asymmetric reactions such as hydrogenation, hydride transfer reaction, hydrosilylation, hydroboration, hydrovinylation, hydroformylation, hydrocarboxylation, allylic alkylation, cyclopropanation, Diels-Alder reaction, Aldol reaction, Heck reaction and Michael addition will be explored based on these innovative ligand systems. The success of this approach would lead to efficient and practical methods for producing important chiral drugs and agrochernicals. 
    
    
     BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE FIGURES 
     FIG. 1 discloses a variety of chiral ligands. 
     FIG. 2 covers a variety of ligands 
     FIG. 3 shows examples of ligands (L1 to L12) 
     FIG. 4 shows examples of ligands (L13 to L24) 
     FIG. 5 shows examples of ligands (L25 to L36) 
     FIG. 6 shows examples of ligands (L37 to L48) 
     FIG. 7 shows examples of ligands (L49 to L60) 
     FIG. 8 shows Ru catalytic systems with a variety of modify ligands 
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION 
     Asymmetric catalytic transfer hydrogenation using 2-propanol as a hydrogen source offers an attractive route of reducing unsymmetric ketones to chiral alcohols. 1  Among the recently developed efficient transition-metal-based chiral catalysts, 2  the most notably is the Ru(II-TsDPEN (N-(p-tolylsulfonyl)-1,2-diphenylethylene-diamine) system reported by Noyori. 3  They suggest that an NH moiety in the ligand may promote a cyclic transition state through hydrogen bonding to ketone substrate, hence greatly increases substrate affinity to the catalyst active site, inducing high activity and optical purity. Earlier results from Noyori and Lemaire have also shown similar “NH effect”. 4.5  In a continuous effort of developing chiral tridentate ligands for asymmetric catalysis, 2a-c  we have designed bis(oxazolinylmethyl)amine (ambox) ligand system. Chiral tridentate ligands tend to form a deep chiral concave around the metal center once coordinated to a transition metal. The two R groups on oxazoline rings of pybox form a highly enantioselective “chiral fence”, which enables better differentiation of the Re and Si faces of incoming substrates. One property of the ligand ambox is a similar cyclic transition state as suggested by Noyori, and effectively catalyzation of asymmetric transformations-for instance, hydride-transfer reduction of ketones (FIG. 1). We disclosed the synthesis of bis[4-(R)-phenyloxazolin-2-yl-methyl)amine (1, (R)-ph-ambox) and its initial results from transfer hydrogenation of aromatic ketones before in Y. Jiang, Q. Jiang, X. Zhang, J. Am. Chem. Soc. 1998, 120, 3817. In the current invention, a direct asymmetric catalytic hydrogenation procedure using H 2  is presented using the Ru-ambox system. Compared with the transfer asymmetric hydrogenation system, the direct hydrogenation system offers many advantages: 1) the reaction is irreversible and 100% conversion can be achieved with high substrate concentration, 2) mild reaction condition such as about 5 atom H 2  pressure can be used and the reaction is clean; 3) the reaction is highly practical and scalable because &gt;1000 turnovers can be conveniently achieved; 4) a large number of ketones and in-dries can be reduced with the current system for the efficient synthesis of alcohols and amines.                           
     Schemetic depiction of transition metal catalysts of chiral tridentate nitrogen ligands with an NH function. Cycli(transition state of transfer hydrogenation of prochiral ketones (see FIG.  9 ). 
     Under the optimal conditions, a variety of aromatic ketones have been reduced to their secondary alcohols with high ee and mostly satisfactory yield (Table 1). Both ee and chemical yield are delicately affected by substrates&#39; steric and electronic properties. The steric hindrance effect of the alkyl sides of ketone substrates is apparent. 
     
       
         
               
             
               
             
               
             
               
               
               
               
               
               
             
               
               
               
               
               
               
               
             
           
               
                 TABLE 1 
               
             
             
               
                   
               
               
                 Enantioselective Hydrogenation of Aryl Ketones 
               
               
                 Catalyzed by (R)-Ph-Ambox-[RuCl 2(PPh     3)3   ] a  System. 
               
             
          
           
               
                 
                   
                             
                     
                         
                         
                     
                   
                 
               
             
          
           
               
                 
                   
                             
                     
                         
                         
                     
                   
                 
               
               
                   
               
             
          
           
               
                   
                   
                 P H2   
                 t 
                 conver- 
                 ee 
               
               
                 entry 
                 ketone 
                 atm 
                 hr 
                 sion % b   
                 % b   
               
               
                   
               
             
          
           
               
                 1 2 
                 
                   
                             
                     
                         
                         
                     
                   
                 
                 X = CH 3 X = Et   
                 5 5 
                 12 12 
                 100 100 
                 98 96 
               
               
                   
               
               
                 3 4 5 
                 
                   
                             
                     
                         
                         
                     
                   
                 
                 X = CH 3 C = Cl X = CH   3 O 
                 5 5 5 
                 12 12 12 
                 100 100 14 
                 99 96 81 
               
               
                   
               
               
                 6 
                   
                 30 
                 12 
                 24 
                 88 
               
               
                   
               
               
                 7 8 
                 
                   
                             
                     
                         
                         
                     
                   
                 
                 X = CH 3   
                 5 30 
                 12 12 
                 100 100 
                 96 98 
               
               
                   
               
               
                 9 
                   
                 X = Cl 
                 5 
                 12 
                 &gt;99 
                 84 
               
               
                 10 
                   
                   
                 30 
                 12 
                 100 
                 81 
               
               
                 11 
                   
                 X = CH 3 O 
                 5 
                 12 
                 100 
                 96 
               
               
                 12 
                   
                   
                 30 
                 12 
                 100 
                 98 
               
               
                   
               
               
                 13 14 15 
                 
                   
                             
                     
                         
                         
                     
                   
                 
                 X = CH 3 X = Cl C = CH   3 O 
                 5 5 5 
                 12 12 12 
                 100 100 &gt;99 
                 98 87 95 
               
               
                   
               
               
                 16 
                   
                   
                 30 
                 12 
                 100 
                 93 
               
               
                   
               
               
                 17 18 
                 
                   
                             
                     
                         
                         
                     
                   
                 
                   
                 5 30 
                 24 12 
                 87 80 
                 94 81 
               
               
                   
               
               
                 19 20 
                 
                   
                             
                     
                         
                         
                     
                   
                 
                   
                 5 30 
                 24 12 
                 97 88 
                 90 80 
               
               
                   
               
               
                 21 
                 
                   
                             
                     
                         
                         
                     
                   
                 
                   
                 5 
                 12 
                 100 
                 97 
               
               
                   
               
               
                 22 23 
                 
                   
                             
                     
                         
                         
                     
                   
                 
                   
                 5 30 
                 12 12 
                 &gt;99 100 
                 94 95 
               
               
                   
               
               
                   a See text for experimental procedures. The reactions were carried out at rt using a 0.2M ketone solution in 2 mL of 2-propanol. Ketone:Ru:1:NaOPr = 100:1:1.1:2.5.  
               
               
                   b % ee and % conversion were determined by GC analysis with Supelco chiral capillary columns. Absolute configurations were determined by comparing optical rotations with literature values. All major secondary alcohol products are of the S configuration.  
               
             
          
         
       
     
     Catalytic Hydrogenation Procedures: In a flame-dried 50 mL Schlenk flask was added [RuCl 2 ,(PPh 3 ) 3 ] (38 mg, 0.04 mmol) and 20 mL 2-propanol, followed by 0.44 mL (R)-Ph-Ambox ligand solution (0.1 M in toluene). The reaction was stirred under nitrogen on an oil bath (82° C.) for 5 hours, giving a clear dark green solution. After the removal of solvent on high vacuum, the greenish residue was washed with freshly distilled diethyl ether (3×5 mL). It was then redissolved in 20 mL 2-propanol and divided into ten equal parts. To each part (2 mL) of the catalyst solution was introduced 0.4 mmol of a ketone substrate. The reaction mixture was stirred at rt for a brief period before 0.1 mL of NaOPr i  solution (0.1 M in 2-propanol) was finally added in one portion. The ten reaction ampuls were placed in an autoclave and charged with hydrogen gas (initial pressure 5 atm). The reactions were allowed to stir at rt overnight. 
     A small portion of each reaction mixture was passed through a silica gel plug, then eluted with diethyl ether. Both reaction conversion and enantiomeric excess were then determined by GC analysis. 
       
     References 
     1. Reviews: (a) Zassinovich, G.; Mestroni, G.; Gladiali, S.  Chem. Rev . 1992, 92, 1051. (b) de Graauw, C. F.; Peters, J. A.; van Bekkum, H.; Huskens, J.  Synthesis  1994, 1007. 
     2. (a) Jiang, Y.; Jiang, Q.; Zhu, G.; Zhang, X.  Tetrahedron Lett . 1997, 38, 215. (b) Jiang, Y.; Jiang, Q.; Zhu, G.; Zhang, X.  Tetrahedron Lett . 1997, 38, 6565. (c) Jiang, Q. Z.; Van Plew, D.; Murtuza, S.; Zhang, X.  Tetrahedron Lett . 1996, 37, 797. (d) Sammakia, T.; Stangeland, E. L. J.  Org. Chem . 1997, 62, 6104. (e) Evans, D. A.; Nelson, S. G.; Gagné, M. R.; Muci, A. R. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 1993, 115, 9800. (f Muller, D.; Umbricht, G.; Weber, B.; Pfaltz, A.  Helv. Chim. Acta  1991, 74, 232. (g) Langer, T.; Heimchen, G.  Tetrahedron Lett . 1996, 37, 1381. 
     3. (a) Noyori, R.; Hashiguchi, S.  Acc. Chem. Res . 1997, 30, 97. (b) Haack, K. J.; Hashiguci, S.; Fujii, A.; Ikariya, T.; Noyori, R. Angew.  Chem., Int. Ed. Engl . 1997, 36, 285. 
     4. Gao, J.; Ikariya, T.; Noyori, R.  Organometallics  1996, 15, 1087. 
     5. Gamez, P.; Fache, F.; Lemaire, M.  Tetrahedron: Asymmetry  1995, 6, 705