Small amounts of achiral beta-amino alcohols reverse the enantioselectivity of chiral catalysts in cooperative asymmetric autocatalysis.
An asymmetric autocatalytic reaction has been catalyzed by a mixture of chiral and achiral beta-amino alcohols. The absolute configuration of the highly enantioenriched obtained product (>98% ee) was shown to depend not only on the absolute configuration of the chiral catalyst but also on the structure and the amount of achiral catalyst. Even in default versus the chiral catalyst, achiral catalysts were shown to be able to reverse the enantioselectivity of the reaction.
Lutz
François
F
Department of Applied Chemistry, Faculty of Science, Tokyo University of Science, Kagurazaka, Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo, 162-8601 Japan.
Igarashi
Takashi
T
Kawasaki
Tsuneomi
T
Soai
Kenso
K