| As the need for developing environmentally friendly chemistry continues to become more apparent, catalytic asymmetric hydrogenation has risen to the forefront as a reliable and eco-friendly method for enantioselective synthesis. We herein describe our progress toward the synthesis of valuable structural motifs via hydrogenation: chiral 1,2-diamines, 1,3-diamines and substituted cyclohexanes.;We propose a strategy whereby protected 1,2-diimine and 1,3-diimine surrogates can be hydrogenated selectively and deprotected to furnish the desired chiral amines. Using this strategy, it was demonstrated that imidazolone precursors could be hydrogenated with >20:1 diastereoselectivity to give latent 1,2-diamines, albeit with no enantiomeric excess.;We further propose that substituted benzene rings linked to an oxazolidinone chiral-auxiliary can be diastereoselectively hydrogenated using a heterogeneous metal catalyst. Following hydrogenation, the chiral cyclohexanes could be obtained in up to quantitative yield and 99% diastereomeric excess. |
