Published on Web 01/07/2005 Bifunctional Lewis Acid-Nucleophile-Based Asymmetric Catalysis: Mechanistic Evidence for Imine Activation Working in Tandem with Chiral Enolate Formation in the Synthesis of â-Lactams Stefan France, Meha H. Shah, Anthony Weatherwax, Harald Wack, Justine P. Roth, and Thomas Lectka* Contribution from the Department of Chemistry, New Chemistry Building, Johns Hopkins UniVersity, 3400 North Charles Street, Baltimore, Maryland 21218 Received September 24, 2004; E-mail:
[email protected] Abstract: We report a mechanistically based study of bifunctional catalyst systems in which chiral nucleophiles work in conjunction with Lewis acids to produce â-lactams in high chemical yield, diastereo- selectivity, and enantioselectivity. Chiral cinchona alkaloid derivatives work best when paired with Lewis acids based on Al(III), Zn(II), Sc(III), and, most notably, In(III). Homogeneous bifunctional catalysts, in which the catalyst contains both Lewis acidic and Lewis basic sites, were also studied in detail. Mechanistic evidence allows us to conclude that the chiral nucleophiles form zwitterionic enolates that react with metal- coordinated imines. Alternative scenarios, which postulated metal-bound enolates, were disfavored on the basis of our observations. Introduction Scheme 1. Tandem Lewis Acid/Nucleophile Catalyzed Synthesis of â-Lactams As prime examples of polyfunctional catalyst systems, enzymes provide precisely arrayed functional groups operating in concert on a substrate within an active site.1 Metalloenzymes are an interesting subset of polyfunctional catalysts that utilize metal ions as Lewis acids and/or redox centers in conjunction with “organic” functional groups to enhance reaction rates. Zinc proteases are especially notable examples;2 these enzymes efficiently chelate zinc hydrates and facilitate nucleophilic attack on the substrate.