Enantioselective Synthesis of Sec-Alcohol Derivatives and Diols via Combined Ruthenium and Enzyme Catalysis

Abstract: The first part of this thesis describes the synthesis of enantiopure secondary alcohol derivatives. These syntheses are carried out via the combination of an enzyme as a resolution catalyst and a ruthenium catalyst as a racemization catalyst, in what is called dynamic kinetic resolution (DKR). By varying the resolution catalyst enantio-complementary processes can be obtained. A lipase (PS-C II) catalyzed DKR of ?-hydroxyamides gave the corresponding (R)-acetates in high yields and with high enantioselectivity. The synthetic usefulness of these obtained (R)-acetates was demonstrated by the synthesis of (R)-5-methyltetrahydrofurane-2-one. A protease (Subtilisin Carlsberg) catalyzed DKR of various secondary alcohols gave the corresponding (S)-acetates in high yields and with high enantioselectivity. In the second part of this thesis the DKR process has been extended into a dynamic kinetic asymmetric transformation (DYKAT) of diols. Various 1,5- and 1,4-diols were transformed into enantiopure diacetates in a lipase (CALB and PS-C II) catalyzed DYKAT. The synthetic utility of the obtained enantiopure diacetates were demonstrated by the synthesis of various enantiopure disubstituted heterocycles.