Of all the classical reactive intermediates in organic chemistry, carbocations are arguably the most comprehensively studied and well understood. Yet, for all the advances made in understanding their reactivity, trivalent carbocations (carbenium ions) have been systematically underutilized in modern organic synthesis, and in asymmetric catalysis in particular. This is especially surprising in light of their outstanding synthetic potential as reactive, pro-chiral, tertiary carbon electrophiles. The asymmetric capture of a discrete carbocation would represent a novel platform of enantioselective electrophilic reactivity, and one that has the potential to allow for the asymmetric construction of many different bond types given the established propensity of carbocations to react readily with a wide range of nucleophiles. The proposed research will focus on the development of novel thiourea-catalyzed asymmetric, nucleophilic substitution reactions of secondary and tertiary benzylic halides, proceeding through stabilized carbocation intermediates. Recent work has demonstrated that thioureas catalyze the reversible ionization of weak carbon-halide bonds in chloroamides and chloroacetals, creating a transient ion pair containing an acyliminium or oxocarbenium ion and a chiral thiourea?chloride complex counterion. This chiral anionic complex has demonstrated the ability to direct highly enantioselective additions of Tr-nucleophiles to these reactive cationic intermediates, resulting in the asymmetric construction of new carbon-carbon bonds. The proposed research will aim to extend this concept of anion abstraction/counterion catalysis to accommodate stabilized benzylic carbocations and to further refine the mechanistic framework within which these reactions are believed to operate. If successful this strategy will represent a powerful and potentially general advance in the catalytic asymmetric synthesis of benzylic stereogenicity. It is emphasized that this work would also necessitate the examination of fundamental problems, such as the solution structures of dynamically formed ion-pairs and the energetics of electrophilic activation of carbon-halogen bonds. Elucidating the mechanistic aspects of the process will pave the way for future advances in the field of asymmetric counterion catalysis.
The significance of this proposal from a perspective of public health is that it creates a common platform of reactivity from which one could asymmetrically generate an array of benzylic stereocenters. The majority of modern medicinal agents are chiral small molecules, and within this subset the benzylic stereocenter is featured prominently. As such, devising new forms of asymmetric catalysis that target this important class of chiral center promises to enable and streamline the development of new pharmaceutical agents.
