The legacy of Gilbert Newton Lewis (1875-1946) pervades the lexicon of chemical bonding and reactivity. The power of his concept of donor-acceptor bonding is evident in the eponymous foundations of electron-pair acceptors (Lewis acids) and donors (Lewis bases). Lewis recognized that acids are not restricted to those substances that contain hydrogen (Bronsted acids), and helped overthrow the "modern cult of the proton". His discovery ushered in the use of Lewis acids as reagents and catalysts for organic reactions. However, in recent years, the recognition that Lewis bases can also serve in this capacity has grown enormously. Most importantly, it has become increasingly apparent that the behavior of Lewis bases as agents for promoting chemical reactions is not merely as an electronic complement of the cognate Lewis acids: in fact Lewis bases are capable of enhancing both the electrophilic and nucleophilic character of molecules to which they are bound. This diversity of behavior leads to a remarkable versatility for the catalysis of reactions by Lewis bases.

Lewis Base Catalysis in Organic Synthesis

Asymmetric aldol reactions are a powerful method for the construction of carbon–carbon bonds in an enantioselective fashion. Historically this reaction has been performed in a stoichiometric fashion to control the various aspects of chemo-, diastereo-, regio- and enantioselectivity, however, a more atom economical approach would unite high selectivity with the use of only a catalytic amount of a chiral promoter. This critical review documents the development of direct catalytic asymmetric aldol methodologies, including organocatalytic and metal-based strategies. New methods have improved the reactivity, selectivity and substrate scope of the direct aldol reaction and enabled the synthesis of complex molecular targets (357 references).

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The Direct Catalytic Asymmetric Aldol Reaction

Catalytic enantioselective allylation of carbonyl compounds and imines.

Enantioselective Catalytic Formation of Quaternary Stereogenic Centers

Chiral tertiary alcohols and R-tertiary amines are important building blocks of naturally occurring and artificial biologically active molecules. Although there are catalytic asymmetric oxidation and amination reactions to access these chiral building blocks, the catalytic asymmetric addition of carbon nucleophiles to ketones and ketimines, which can simultaneously construct a carbon skeleton and tetrasubstituted stereogenic center, is synthetically more efficient (Scheme 1). Realizing the catalytic asymmetric addition to ketones and ketimines (tetrasubstituted carbon synthesis), however, is generally more challenging than addition to aldehydes or aldimines (trisubstituted carbon synthesis) for two main reasons: (1) ketones and ketimines are significantly less reactive than aldehydes and aldimines; (2) enantio-face differentiation of ketones and ketimines is more difficult due to the smaller steric and electronic differences between the two substituents on prochiral carbons. Therefore, asymmetric catalysts that promote C-C bond-formation to ketones and ketimines should have high catalyst activity and enantioselectivity.

Asymmetric Synthesis of Tertiary Alcohols and α-Tertiary Amines via Cu-Catalyzed C−C Bond Formation to Ketones and Ketimines

A general and mild catalytic allylation of carbonyl compounds, applicable to aldehydes, ketones, and imines is developed using allyltrimethoxysilane as the allylating reagent. The reaction proceeds smoothly with 1−10 mol % of CuCl and TBAT in THF at ambient temperature. Mechanism studies indicated that the copper alkoxide, allylfluorodimethoxysilane, and allyltrimethoxysilane are essential to promote the reaction efficiently. Preliminary extension of the reaction to the first catalytic enantioselective allylation of ketones using an allylsilane produced the product with 61% ee from acetophenone, using a CuCl-p-tol-BINAP-TBAT catalyst (15 mol %).

A general catalytic allylation using allyltrimethoxysilane.

Formal catalytic asymmetric total synthesis of fostriecin.

Catalytic asymmetric synthesis of the natural antibiotic fostriecin (CI-920) and its analogue 8-epi-fostriecin and evaluation of their biological activity are described. We used four catalytic asymmetric reactions to construct all of the chiral centers of fostriecin and 8-epi-fostriecin; cyanosilylation of a ketone, Yamamoto allylation, direct aldol reaction, and Noyori reduction, two of which were developed by our group. Catalytic enantioselective cyanosilylation of ketone 13 produced the chiral tetrasubstituted carbon at C-8. Both enantiomers of the product cyanohydrin were obtained with high enantioselectivity by switching the center metal of the catalyst from titanium to gadolinium. Yamamoto allylation constructed the C-5 chiral carbon in the alpha,beta-unsaturated lactone moiety. A direct catalytic asymmetric aldol reaction of an alkynyl ketone using LLB catalyst constructed the chirality at C-9 with the introduction of a synthetically versatile alkyne moiety, which was later converted to cis-vinyl iodide, the substrate for the subsequent Stille coupling for the triene synthesis. Noyori reduction produced the secondary alcohol at C-11 from the acetylene ketone 6 with excellent selectivity. Importantly, all the stereocenters were constructed under catalyst control in this synthesis. This strategy should be useful for rapid synthesis of stereoisomers of fostriecin.

Kunihiko Fujii

Papers

A general catalytic allylation using allyltrimethoxysilane.

Formal catalytic asymmetric total synthesis of fostriecin.

Catalyst-controlled asymmetric synthesis of fostriecin and 8-epi-fostriecin.

A General Catalytic Allylation Using Allyltrimethoxysilane.

Catalyst-Controlled Asymmetric Synthesis of Fostriecin (Ia) and 8-epi-Fostriecin (Ib).