Efficient Recycling of Catalyst-Solvent Couples from Lewis Acid-Catalyzed Asymmetric Reactions in Water.

Bioinspired supramolecular architectures were used to compartmentalize highly charged aqua scandium ions into chiral hydrophobic scaffolds for Lewis acid-catalyzed asymmetric reactions. Recycling without significant loss in catalytic performance is a formidable task, especially for Lewis acid-catalyzed reactions. This is because Lewis basic impurities derived from starting materials, products, and water are highly competitive ligands for both substrate binding and metal complexation, thus poisoning the Lewis acids and leading to their leaching. Even when basic aniline is used, the architecture allowed for effective suppression of Sc leaching and for reuse of solvent-catalyst couples in asymmetric ring-opening reactions without deactivation. Application to asymmetric thia-Michael addition and hydroxymethylation was also demonstrated. The successful recycling in highly Lewis basic environments underpins the exceptionally high robustness of the chiral Lewis acid catalyst.