Kinetic modeling using nonlinear differential equations is proposed to analyze the spontaneous generation of enantiomeric excess in the autocatalytic addition of diisopropylzinc to prochiral pyrimidine carbaldehydes (Soai reaction). Our approach reproduces experimentally observed giant chiral amplification from an initial enantiomeric excess of <10 ؊6 % to >60%, high sensitivity and positive response to the presence of minute amounts of chiral initiator at concentrations <10 ؊14 M, and spontaneous absolute asymmetric synthesis from achiral starting conditions. From our numerical simulations using kinetic schemes derived from the Frank model, including stereospecific autocatalysis and mutual inhibition, we have shown that it is possible to reproduce the mirror-symmetry-breaking behavior of the Soai reaction under batch conditions leading to a bimodal enantiomeric product distribution. Mirror-symmetry breaking was found to be resistant to a loss of stereoselectivity up to 30%. While the mutual inhibition between enantiomers seems to originate from the presence of dimerization equilibria, the exact nature of the autocatalytic stereoselective process still remains to be revealed. From the kinetic viewpoint, simple autocatalysis involving monomers as the catalytic species is consistent with all reported experimental effects of the Soai reaction.alkylzinc addition ͉ autocatalysis ͉ chirality A symmetric synthesis usually requires the intervention of chiral chemical reagents or catalysts. Few examples are known in which the generation of enantiomerically enriched products occurs from achiral precursors without the involvement of such auxiliaries. These cases, known as absolute asymmetric synthesis (1, 2), have been mostly observed in the combination of spontaneous resolution and enantioselective catalysis (3) as well as by the influence of external chiral factors such as circularly polarized light (4) or vortex motion (5). Some cases were reported in which no obvious chiral inductor was used and, nevertheless, high enantiomeric excess (ee) has been obtained systematically. These examples display the signature of mirrorsymmetry breaking (6), i.e., a process in which a small random ee is greatly amplified, whereas the chirality sign remains unpredictable for each individual experiment. The generation of small random ee occurs practically in any chiral system for statistical reasons alone in which the ee is inversely proportional to the square root of the number of molecules, ee ϰ n Ϫ1/2 (7). However, this value remains negligible as long as a large number of molecules is involved, so an amplification mechanism is needed to increase such minute ee to a macroscopic level.Mirror-symmetry breaking in chemical systems is typically associated to autocatalytic kinetics, i.e., a feedback mechanism in which one or several reaction products directly increase the overall rate of the chemical reaction. Hence in the specific case of chiral autocatalysis, the enantiomeric product could act as an asymmetric catalyst of its proper forma...

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ABSTRACT:The preferred conformation of aminophosphanes with bulky amino groups (1)(2)(3)(4)(5)(6)(7)(8)(9)(10)(11)(12)(13)(14)(15)(16)(17)(18)(19)(20) was determined by NMR spectroscopy in solution, in two cases in the solid state (11,17) Ph (14), R = Bu, R = Ph (15), and in one case (11) by X-ray crystallography. Trimethylsilylaminodiphenylphosphanes Ph 2 PN(R)SiMe 3 (R = Bu (1), Ph (2), 2-pyridyl (3), 2-pyrimidyl (4), Me 3 Si (5)), amino-(chloro)phenylphosphanes Ph(Cl)PNRR (R

A series of aminodiphenylphosphanes 1 [Ph 2 P-N(H)tBu (a), -NEt

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