Michael addition reactions between chiral Ni(II) complex of glycine and 3-(trans-enoyl)oxazolidin-2-ones. A case of electron donor-acceptor attractive interaction-controlled face diastereoselectivity.

This study has demonstrated that the readily available and inexpensive 3-(trans-3'-alkyl/arylpropenoyl)oxazolidin-2-ones, featuring high electrophilicity and conformational homogeneity, are synthetically superior Michael acceptors over the conventionally used alkyl enoylates, allowing for a remarkable improvement in reactivity and, in most cases, diastereoselectivity of the addition reactions with a Ni(II) complex of the chiral Schiff base of glycine with (S)-o-[N-(N-benzylprolyl)amino]benzophenone. Kinetically controlled diastereoselectivity in the corresponding Michael addition reactions between the Ni(II) complex of glycine and the oxazolidin-2-ones was systematically studied as a function of steric, electronic, and position effects of the substituents on the starting Michael acceptor. In both aliphatic and aromatic series the simple diastereoselectivity was found to be virtually complete, affording the products via the corresponding TSs with the approach geometry like. The face diastereoselectivity of the reactions between the Ni(II) complex of glycine and the 3-(trans-3'-alkylpropenoyl)oxazolidin-2-ones was found to depend exclusively on the steric bulk of the alkyl group on the starting Michael acceptor. In contrast, the face diastereoselectivity in the reactions of aromatic oxazolidin-2-ones with the Ni(II) complex of glycine was shown to be controlled predominantly by the electronic properties of the aryl ring. In particular, the additions of the Ni(II) complex of glycine with 3-(trans-3'-arylpropenoyl)oxazolidin-2-ones, bearing electron-withdrawing substituents on the phenyl ring, afforded the (2S,3R)-configured products with synthetically useful diastereoselectivity and in quantitative chemical yields, thus allowing for an efficient access to the sterically constrained beta-aryl-substituted pyroglutamic and glutamic acids.