Asymmetric Titanium-Catalyzed Cyclopropanation of Nitriles with Grignard Reagents

Abstract

The titanium-catalyzed asymmetric cyclopropanation of cyanoesters­ with Grignard reagents was investigated for the first time. Particularly, the study of the efficiency of Taddol-based titanium complexes­ has shown that the prior preparation of Taddol titanium complexes was not required and a large panel of ligands was evaluated by using this approach. The spirocyclopropanelactams were obtained with good diastereoselectivity and with moderate enantioselectivities from the main diastereoisomer (up to 32%).

Key words

cyclopropanes - enantioselectivity - Grignard reagents - nitriles­ - spiro compounds - titanium

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