The use of mechanochemistry to carry out enantioselective reactions has been explored in the last ten years with excellent results. Several chiral organocatalysts and even enzymes have proved to be resistant to milling conditions, which allows for rather efficient enantioselective transformations under ball-milling conditions. The present article reports the first example of a liquid-assisted grinding (LAG) mechanochemical enzymatic resolution of racemic β3-amino esters employing Candida antarctica lipase B (CALB) to afford highly valuable enantioenriched N-benzylated-β3-amino acids in good yields. Furthermore the present protocol is readily scalable.

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The X‐ray structures of fifteen 1, 3‐imidazolidine, 1, 3‐oxazolidine, 1, 3‐dioxan‐4‐one, and hydropyrimidine‐4(1H)‐one derivatives are described (Table 2) and compared with known structures of similar compounds (Figs. 1–20). The differences between structures containing exocyclic N‐acyl groups and those lacking this structural element arise from the A1,3 effect of the amide moieties. Even t‐Bu groups are forced into axial positions of six‐ring half‐chair or into flag‐pole positions of six‐ring twist‐boat conformers by this effect (Figs. 16–20). In the N‐acylated five‐membered heterocycles, a combination of ring strain and A1, 3 strain leads to strong pyramidalizations of the amide N‐atoms (Table 1) such that the acyl groups wind up on one side and the other substituents on the opposite side of the rings (Figs. 4–9 and Scheme 3). Thus, the acyl (protecting!) groups strongly contribute to the steric bias between the two faces of the rings. Observed, at first glance surprizing stereoselectivities of reactions of these heterocycles (Schemes 1 and 2) are interpreted (Scheme 3) as an indirect consequence of the amide A1, 3 strain effect. The conclusions drawn are considered relvant for a better understanding of the ever increasing role which amide groups play in stereoselective syntheses.

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Aqueous in situ one-pot N-Boc-deprotection-cyclization of Nα-Boc-dipeptidyl-tert-butyl and methyl esters under microwave irradiation afforded 2,5-diketopiperazines (DKPs) in excellent yields. This protocol is rapid, safe, environmentally friendly, and highly efficient, and showed that the tert-butoxy moiety is also an excellent leaving group for these cyclizations.

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A simple and efficient protocol has been developed for the Michael addition of amines to α,β-unsaturated esters under microwave irradiation. Under these conditions there was a significant decrease in the reaction time, increases in the yields and increased purity of the products.