Organocatalytic asymmetric carbonyl reductions have been achieved with boranes in the presence of oxazaborolidine and phosphorus-based catalysts (Section 11.1), with borohydride reagents in the presence of phase-transfer catalysts (Section 11.2), and with hydrosilanes in the presence of chiral nucleophilic activators (Section 11.3).
Borane Reduction Catalyzed by Oxazaborolidines and Phosphorus-based CatalystsProbably the most frequently applied catalytic metal-free and highly enantioselective reduction of carbonyl compounds is the oxazaborolidine-catalyzed borane reduction (the Corey-Bakshi-Shibata (CBS) method) [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8]. In this approach, which is based on initial work by Itsuno et al. [1,[6][7][8], oxazaborolidines serve as the catalysts. These latter materials are derived from readily available amino alcohols; the most frequently used is probably the proline-derived bicyclic compound 4. The CBS method has been successfully applied to all types of ketones, for example diaryl, dialkyl, and aryl alkyl ketones, haloalkyl ketones, transition metal p-complexes of aryl alkyl ketones, cyclic and open-chain enones, etc. [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8]. Scheme 11.1 shows the explicit example of acetophenone (1) which can be reduced with boranes such as BH 3 THF (2a), BH 3 Me 2 S, catechol borane, or the borane-diethylaniline complex (2b) to give 1-phenylethanol 3 in very good yields and almost perfect enantiomeric excess.Scheme 11.1 also summarizes other impressive examples of the performance of the CBS method [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8]. Several excellent reviews on the CBS method have appeared recently [1, 2], and no detailed discussion of the development of the process or substrate scope shall be presented in this review. Please note, however, that the oxazaborolidine-catalyzed borane reduction of ketones is a prime example of bifunctional catalysis [2,9] -as shown in Scheme 11.2, the current mechanistic picture involves simultaneous binding of both the ketone and the borane to the Lewis-acidic (boron) and Lewis-basic (nitrogen) sites of the catalyst A. In the resulting ternary complex B, the reaction partners are synergistically activated toward hydride transfer.