Single and double diastereoselection in azomethine ylide cycloaddition reactions with unsaturated chiral bicyclic lactams

Double diastereoselectivity data were analyzed to provide insight into the structural features that influence pi-facial selectivity in 1,3-dipolar cycloadditions of chiral and achiral azomethine ylides to chiral, unsaturated bicyclic lactams. Three major steric contributions to the differences in stability (Delta Delta G(double dagger)) between competing cycloaddition transition states were identified. The first major set of steric interactions involve that between the dipoles and the substituents on the left hemisphere (R(2)) and concave faces of the bicyclic lactams. This effectively hindered both alpha- and beta-approaches in the nonextended transition states shown in Figure 1. The second major steric interaction was provided by the nonbonded interactions (i) between the R(1) angular substituent on the bicyclic lactam and the pi-system of the dipole as shown in Figures 3 and 4. This interaction was shown to be very significant, causing reversal in pi-facial attack of chiral and achiral dipoles when the angular substituent is changed from phenyl or methyl to hydrogen. The high diastereoselectivity observed now opens a route to highly substituted chiral, nonracemic pyrrolidines.