Asymmetric catalysis in organic synthesis

Abstract

This is the final report of a three-year, Laboratory Directed Research and Development (LDRD) project at the Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL).The goal of the project was to prepare new catalyst systems, which would perform chemical reactions in an enantioselective manner so as to produce only one of the possible optical isomers of the product molecule.We have investigated the use of lanthanide metals bearing both diolate and Schiff-base ligands as catalysts for the enantioselective reduction of prochiral ketones to secondary alcohols.The ligands were prepared from cheap, readily available starting materials, and their synthesis was performed in a "modular" manner such that tailoring of specific groups within the ligand could be carried out without repeating the entire synthetic procedure.In addition.Tve have developed a new ligand system for Group IV and lanthanide-based olefin polymerization catalysts.The ligand system is easily prepared from readily available starting materials and offers the opportunity to rapidly prepare a wide range of closely related ligands that differ only in their substitution patterns at an aromatic ring.When attached to a metal center, the ligand system has the potential to carry out polymerization reactions in a stereocontrolled manner.