O-Methylephedrine: a versatile and highly efficient ortho-directing group. Synthesis of enantiopure 1,2-disubstituted ferrocene derivatives.
O-Methylephedrine was identified as a very efficient chiral auxiliary for ortho-lithiation reactions of ferrocenes. (1R,2S)-O-Methylephedrine [CH(3)NHCH(CH(3))CH(Ph)OCH(3)] was reacted with N-ferrocenylmethyl-N,N,N-trimethylammonium iodide [FcCH(2)N(CH(3))(3)I; Fc = ferrocenyl] to give (1R,2S)-N-ferrocenylmethyl-O-methylephedrine. Treatment of this compound with t-BuLi in pentane followed by quenching with the electrophiles iodine, dibromotetrafluoroethane, chlorodiphenylphosphine or benzophenone gave 2-substituted ferrocenes in 98% de and with the (R(p))-ferrocene configuration. Subsequently, the chiral auxiliary could be replaced by systems including dimethylamine, acetate, diaryl- or dialkylphosphines to give a number of enantiopure bifunctional 1,2-disubstituted ferrocene derivatives such as (R(p))-N-2-iodo- or (R(p))-N-2-bromoferrocenylmethyldimethylamine or (R(p))-2-acetoxymethyl-1-diphenylphosphinoferrocene. As an application, ferrocenyl diphosphines possessing a planar (R(p))-ferrocene configuration only [1,2-(PPh(2))FcCH(2)PR(2), R = Cy, Ph, [3,5-(CF(3))(2)Ph]] were synthesized in three steps from O-methylephedrine and N-ferrocenylmethyl-N,N,N-trimethylammonium iodide in up to 77% overall yield.
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Institute of Organic Chemistry, University of Vienna, A-1090 Vienna, Austria.
Kitzler
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Weissensteiner
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