Chiral guanidine-functionalized chloramphenicol base: a novel ultra-low-loading bifunctional organocatalyst for highly enantioselective alcoholysis of meso-cyclic anhydride
摘要
A newly designed chiral guanidine-functionalized bifunctional organocatalyst bearing chloramphenicol base scaffold has been developed and successfully applied in the highly enantioselective alcoholysis of meso-cyclic anhydride. The desired reaction proceeded in excellent enantioselectivities and catalytic activity (up to 97% yield and 99% ee) to afford a series of optically pure chiral hemiesters even at 0.5 mol% catalyst loading, which is the first example of catalytic asymmetric alcoholysis promoted by such a low amount of organocatalyst. Furthermore, the scope and limitations of this improved protocol have been demonstrated with more than 20 examples, including the scale-up ability on the gram scale.