The new chiral ligands I-III based on derivatives of imidazolidin-4-one were synthesised and characterised. The catalytic activity and enantioselectivity of their corresponding copper(II) complexes were studied in asymmetric Henry reactions. It was found that the enantioselectivity of these catalysts is overall very high and depends on the relative configuration of the ligand used; cis-configuration of ligand affords the nitroaldols with major enantiomer S- (up to 97% ee), whereas the application of ligands with trans-configuration led to nitroaldols with major R-enantiomer (up to 96% ee). The "proline-type" ligand IV was also tested in asymmetric aldol reactions. Under the optimised reaction conditions, aldol products with enantioselectivities of up to 91% ee were obtained.

• Keywords
• asymmetric Henry reaction, asymmetric aldol reaction, chiral ligands, enantioselective catalysis, imidazolidine derivatives,
• Publication type
• Journal Article MeSH

The human drugs - the antibiotic linezolid (1) and the anticoagulant rivaroxaban (2) - belong among modern pharmaceutics, which contain an oxazolidine-2-one moiety bearing a stereogenic center. The chirality of these drugs is a fundamental attribute for their biological activity. Herein, one of the efficient asymmetric syntheses of these drugs was studied in detail. Highly enantioselective catalysts were tested in the key step of the synthetic procedure, i.e., the asymmetric Henry reaction, under different reaction conditions, using several starting aldehydes. The corresponding nitroaldols as chiral intermediates in the syntheses of these drugs were obtained in high yields and enantiomeric excesses of up to 91% ee.

• Keywords
• asymmetric Henry reaction, enantioselective catalysis, linezolid, oxazolidine-2-one derivatives, rivaroxaban,
• Publication type
• Journal Article MeSH

This present mini-review covers recently published results on Cu(I) and Cu(II) complexes immobilized on polystyrene carriers, which are used as heterogeneous, eco-friendly reusable catalysts applied for carbon-carbon and carbon-nitrogen forming reactions. Recent advances and trends in this area are demonstrated in the examples of oxidative homocoupling of terminal alkynes, the synthesis of propargylamines, nitroaldolization reactions, azide alkyne cycloaddition, N-arylation of nitrogen containing compounds, aza-Michael additions, asymmetric Friedel-Crafts reactions, asymmetric Mukaiyama aldol reactions, and asymmetric 1,3-dipolar cycloaddition of azomethine ylides. The type of polystyrene matrix used for the immobilization of complexes is discussed in this paper, and particularly, the efficiency of the catalysts from the point of view of the overall reaction yield, and possible enantioselectivity and potential reusing, is reviewed.

• Keywords
• C–C bond forming reaction, C–N bond forming reaction, copper complexes, polystyrene, recyclable catalyst, supported catalyst,
• MeSH
• Nitrogen chemistry   MeSH
• Catalysis MeSH
• Copper chemistry   MeSH
• Polystyrenes chemistry   MeSH
• Carbon chemistry   MeSH
• Publication type
• Journal Article MeSH
• Review MeSH
• Names of Substances
• Nitrogen MeSH
• Copper MeSH
• Polystyrenes MeSH
• Carbon MeSH