Reusable Glucose-Based Crown Ethers Anchored to PVC.

The recovery and reuse of the enantioselective catalysts produced by tedious work are important not only from the perspective of green chemistry, but also from the point of view of productivity. Some of the carbohydrate-based crown ethers prepared in our research group were able to generate significant asymmetric induction in certain cases. However, they were not recoverable after the synthesis. Therefore, we modified the most effective structure with a propargyl group so that it can be attached to a polymer with an azide-alkyne reaction. It was investigated whether the position of the bonding affects the activity of the crown ethers, hence, the propargyl group was introduced either to the side chain, to the anomeric center or to the benzylidene protecting group. To anchor the macrocycles, low molecular weight PVC was modified with azide groups in 4% and 10%, respectively. It was found that glucose-based crown ether bearing the propargyl group on the benzylidene unit and grafted to PVC in 4% has the highest activity regarding the enantioselectivity (77% ee). The catalyst was recoverable in the Michael addition of diethyl acetamidomalonate to nitrostyrene and it could be reused five times without the loss of enantioselectivity.

Synthesis of Methyl 4,6-Di-O-ethyl-α-d-glucopyranoside-Based Azacrown Ethers and Their Effects in Asymmetric Reactions.

Carbohydrate-based crown ethers have been reported to be able to generate asymmetric induction in certain reactions. Previously, it was proved that the monosaccharide unit, the anomeric substituent, and the sidearm could influence the catalytic activity of the monoaza-15-crown-5 macrocycles derived from sugars. In order to gain information about the effect of the flexibility, 4,6-di-O-ethyl-glucoside-based crown compounds were synthesized, and their efficiency was compared to the 4,6-O-benzylidene analogues. It was found that the absence of the two-ring annulation has a negative effect on the enantioselectivity in liquid-liquid two-phase reactions: in the Darzens condensation of 2-chloroacetophenone and in the epoxidation of chalcone. The same trend was observed in the solid-liquid phase Michael addition of diethyl acetamidomalonate. Surprisingly, in the solid-liquid phase cyclopropanation of benzylidenemalononitrile, one of the new catalysts was highly enantioselective (99% ee).