Synthesis of achiral, but unsymmetric, seven-membered rhodium(I)-chelates for hydrogenation in the chiral environment of alkyl polyglucoside micelles

Chiral rhodium(I) chelates containing a seven-membered ring are well-known active catalysts for the asymmetric hydrogenation of amino acid precursors. A high conformational flexibility allows their enantioselectivity to be strongly influenced by modifiers. Now we show the nature of the counter-ions to have a large influence in apolar solvents. In addition, the presence of micelle forming alkyl polyglycosides as amphiphiles causes a remarkable increase in the enantiomeric excess (%ee). However, on achiral catalysts this enantioselectivity inducing effect scarcely exceeds the standard deviation for the gas chromatographic determination of the enantiomeric ratio. This is also true for the application of unsymmetric P,P'-ligands such as 3-phosphinopropyl-phosphinites or butane-1,4-diyl-bis(phosphines) carrying different P'-aryl groups, for which synthetic routes are given. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.