NEW TOOLS IN SYNTHESIS 1055 Recent Advances of BINAP Chemistry in the Industrial Aspects Hidenori Kumobayashi, Takashi Miura,* Noboru Sayo, Takao Saito, Xiaoyong Zhang Central Research Laboratory, Takasago International Corporation, 1-4-11 Nishi-yawata, Hiratsuka, Kanagawa 254-0073, Japan Fax (0463)25-2084; E-mail:
[email protected] Received 24 April 2001 and ketones such as a-(acylamino)acrylic acids,6 enam- Abstract: New efficient synthetic methods of optically active BI- 7 8 ides, a,b-unsaturated carboxylic acids, allylic and ho- NAP [BINAP = 2,2’-bis(diphenylphosphino)-1,1’-binaphthyl] and 9 10 its variants are described. Application of these BINAP variants in moallylic alcohols, alkylidene lactones, alkenyl 10 11 12 asymmetric catalytic hydrogenation of prochiral ketones and olefins ethers, b-keto esters, b-hydroxyketones, and b-ami- to various industrially important compounds is discussed. noketones.12 Key words: BINAP ligands, ruthenium and iridium catalysts, Starting with the development of l-menthol process using asymmetric hydrogenation, ketones, unsaturated carboxylic acids BINAP–Rh catalyzed asymmetric isomerization of allyl- amines,5a we have been investigating catalytic asymmet- ric synthesis mainly based on BINAP chemistry for two Introduction decades and have developed various asymmetric synthet- ic processes. All of these results are based on the success Enantioselective syntheses have been gaining more and of the marvelous abilities of the BINAP ligands. Recently more importance in a wide range of fields such as pharma- the targets of asymmetric synthesis have become varied ceuticals, agrochemicals, food additives, aromachemicals and complicated, while BINAP sometimes shows its lim- and functional materials because the biological activities itation.