A study of the relationship between the stereochemical elements of a phosphoramidite ligand and the stereoselectivity of iridium-catalyzed amination of allylic carbonates is reported. During catalyst activation, a complex of a phosphoramidite ligand possessing one axial chiral binaphtholate group and two resolved phenethyl substituents converts to a more reactive cyclometalated complex containing one distal chiral substituent at nitrogen, one substituent that becomes part of the metalacycle, and one unperturbed binaphtholate group. Systematic changes were made to the different stereochemical elements. Replacement of the distal chiral phenethyl substituent with a large achiral cycloalkyl group led to a catalyst that reacts with rates and enantioselectivities that are similar to those of the original catalyst with the phenethyl group. Studies of the reactions of diastereomeric ligands containing (R) or (S) binaphtholate groups on phosphorus, along with one (R)-phenethyl and one achiral cyclododecyl group on nitrogen, show that the complexes of the two diastereomeric ligands undergo cyclometalation at much different rates. To access both diastereomeric catalysts and to determine if the reaction can occur selectively with an even simpler ligand containing a phenethyl substituent at nitrogen as the only resolved stereochemical element, the catalyst derived from a phosphoramidite containing a biphenolate group was studied. Catalysts generated from this ligand were shown to react in all cases examined with nearly the same rates, regioselectivities, and enantioselectivities as catalysts derived from the original more elaborate ligand. The absolute stereochemistry of the product implies that the major enantiomer is formed from the (R(a),R(c))-atropisomer of the catalyst containing the biphenolate group.

Iridium-catalyzed asymmetric allylic substitution has become a valuable method to prepare products from the addition of nucleophiles at the more substituted carbon of an allyl unit. The most active and selective catalysts contain a phosphoramidite ligand possessing at least one arylethyl substituent on the nitrogen atom of the ligand. In these systems, the active catalyst is generated by a baseinduced cyclometalation at the methyl group of this substituent to generate an iridium metalacycle bound by the COD ligand of the [Ir(COD)Cl] 2 precursor and one additional labile dative ligand. Such complexes catalyze the reactions of linear allylic esters with alkylamines, arylamines, phenols, alcohols, imides, carbamates, ammonia, enolates and enolate equivalents, as well as typical stabilized carbon nucleophiles generated from malonates and cyanoesters. Iridium catalysts for enantioselective allylic substitution have also been generated from phosphorus ligands with substituents bound by heteroatoms, and an account of the studies of such systems, along with a description of the development of iridium catalysts is included.

Iridium-catalyzed, asymmetric allylation of ammonia as a nucleophile occurs with stereoselectivity to form a symmetric diallylamine, and related allylation of the inexpensive ammonia equivalent potassium trifluoroacetamide or the highly reactive ammonia equivalent lithium di-tert-butyliminodicarboxylate forms a range of conveniently protected, primary, alpha-branched allylic amines in high yields, high branched-to-linear regioselectivities, and high enantiomeric excess. The reactions of ammonia equivalents were conducted with a catalyst generated from a phosphoramidite containing a single stereochemical element.

Intramolecular addition of O−H and N−H bonds across carbon− carbon triple bonds to form 5-or 6-membered rings with exocyclic methylene groups for ether products and exocyclic methyl groups for imine products is catalyzed by (IPr)Cu(Me) (IPr = 1,3-bis(2,6-diisopropylphenyl)-imidazol-2-ylidene). In a competition study, the cyclization of primary amines was found to be faster than that of alcohols. Kinetic studies for the conversion of 4-pentyn-1-ol reveal that the catalytic reaction is first-order in copper catalyst and zero-order in alkynyl alcohol, and an Eyring analysis yields ΔH ‡ = 18.7(4) kcal/ mol and ΔS ‡ = −26(1) eu. The reaction of 5-phenyl-4-pentyn-1-ol provides (Z)-2-benzylidene-tetrahydrofuran in high yield and with quantitative stereoselectivity. Results from combined experimental and DFT studies are consistent with a mechanism that involves alkyne insertion into a Cu−O alkoxide bond followed by protonolysis upon reaction with free alkynyl alcohol.