An extended study of the scope and mechanism of the catalytic asymmetric aziridination of imines with ethyl diazoacetate mediated by catalysts prepared from the VANOL and VAPOL ligands and triphenylborate is described. Nonlinear studies with scalemic VANOL and VAPOL reveal an essentially linear relationship between the optical purity of the ligand and the product suggesting that the catalyst incorporates a single molecule of the ligand. Two species are present in the catalyst prepared from B(OPh)(3) and either VANOL or VAPOL as revealed by (1)H NMR studies. Mass spectral analysis of the catalyst mixture suggests that one of the species involves one ligand molecule and one boron atom (B1) and the other involves one ligand and two boron atoms (B2). The latter can be formulated as either a linear or cyclic pyroborate and the (11)B NMR spectrum is most consistent with the linear pyroborate structure. Several new protocols for catalyst preparation are developed which allow for the generation of mixtures of the B1 and B2 catalysts in ratios that range from 10:1 to 1:20. Studies with catalysts enriched in the B1 and B2 species reveal that the B2 catalyst is the active catalyst in the VAPOL catalyzed asymmetric aziridination reaction giving significantly higher asymmetric inductions and rates than the B1 catalyst. The difference is not as pronounced in the VANOL series. A series of 12 different imines were surveyed with the optimal catalyst preparation procedure with the finding that the asymmetric inductions are in the low to mid 90s for aromatic imines and in the mid 80s to low 90s for aliphatic imines for both VANOL and VAPOL catalysts. Nonetheless, the crystallinity of the N-benzhydryl aziridines is such that nearly all of the 12 aziridine products screened can be brought to >99 % ee with a single recrystallization.

The stereochemistry-determining step of the self-assembled chiral Brønsted acid-catalyzed aziridination reactions of MEDAM imines and three representative diazo nucleophiles has been studied using ONIOM(B3LYP/6-31G*:AM1) calculations. The origin of cis selectivity in the reactions of ethyldiazoacetate and trans selectivity in reactions of N-phenyldiazoacetamide can be understood on the basis of the difference in specific noncovalent interactions in the stereochemistry-determining transition state. A H-bonding interaction between the amidic hydrogen and an oxygen atom of the chiral counterion has been identified as the key interaction responsible for this reversal in diastereoselectivity. This hypothesis was validated when a 3° diazoamide lacking this interaction showed pronounced cis selectivity both experimentally and calculationally. Similar trends in diastereoselection were observed in analogous reactions catalyzed by triflic acid. The broad implications of these findings and their relevance to chiral Brønsted acid catalysis are discussed.

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Chiral polyborate based Brønsted acids prepared from the VANOL and VAPOL ligands are known to catalyze the reaction of diarylmethyl imines with diazoesters to give cis-aziridines. In the present work, this same catalyst is shown to catalyze the reaction of the same imines with diazoacetamides to give trans-aziridines with the same high asymmetric inductions as seen with cis-aziridines, enabling the development of an unprecedented universal catalytic asymmetric aziridination protocol. The substrate scope is broad and includes imines prepared from both electron-rich and electron-poor aromatic aldehydes and also from 1°, 2°, and 3° aliphatic aldehydes. The face selectivity of the addition to the imine was found to be independent of the diazo compounds. The (S)-VANOL or (S)-VAPOL derived catalyst will cause both diazoesters and diazoacetamides to add to the Si-face of the imine when cis-aziridines are formed and both to add to the Re-face of the imine when trans-aziridines are formed.