Asymmetric aminolytic kinetic resolution of racemic epoxides using recyclable chiral polymeric Co(III)-salen complexes: a protocol for total utilization of racemic epoxide in the synthesis of (R)-Naftopidil and (S)-Propranolol.

Chiral polymeric Co(III) salen complexes with chiral ((R)/(S)-BINOL, diethyl tartrate) and achiral (piperazine and trigol) linkers with varying stereogenic centers were synthesized for the first time and used as catalysts for aminolytic kinetic resolution (AKR) of a variety of terminal epoxides and glycidyl ethers to get enantio-pure epoxides (ee, 99%) and N-protected β-amino alcohols (ee, 99%) with quantitative yield in 16 h at RT under optimized reaction conditions. This protocol was also used for the synthesis of two enantiomerically pure drug molecules (R)-Naftopidil (α1-blocker) and (S)-Propranolol (β-blocker) as a key step via AKR of single racemic naphthylglycidyl ether with Boc-protected isoproylamine with 100% epoxide utilization at 1 g level. The catalyst 1 was successfully recycled for a number of times.