Development of chiral bisphosphoric acid/boronic acid co-catalyst system for enantioselective S_N2’ reaction

An enantioselective intramolecular S_N2’ reaction of geometrically defined allylic substrates was developed by introducing a co-catalyst system composed of chiral bisphosphoric acid and phenylboronic acid. In the enantioselective nucleophilic substitution reaction using chiral phosphoric acids and derivatives (CPAs) as the catalyst, the formation of the corresponding CPA ester, which is afforded through the S_N2 reaction of the substrate with the nucleophilic phosphate anion generated during the activation of a leaving group, has been a serious problem because of the catalyst deactivation. The developed co-catalyst system surmounted this fundamental problem by efficiently suppressing the catalyst deactivation process to afford enantioenriched vinyl epoxides in good yields with moderate to high enantioselectivities. Mechanistic elucidation of the present enantioselective intramolecular S_N2’ reaction using the co-catalyst system revealed that the leaving group is involved in the enantio-determining transition states, and the anti-S_N2’ pathway is considered to be the rational mechanism of the present allylic substitution reaction. In addition, the stereospecific Meinwald rearrangement of the thus-formed enantioenriched vinyl epoxide was aided by an equimolar amount of a Lewis acid, affording the corresponding all-carbon quaternary α-vinyl cyclohexanone without marked loss of enantiomeric purity.