Asymmetric Dehydrative Cyclization of Allyl Alcohol to Cyclic Ether Using Chiral Bronsted Acid/CpRu(II) Hybrid Catalysts: A DFT Study of the Origin of Enantioselectivity

To elucidate the reaction mechanism and the origin of the enantioselectivity of the asymmetric dehydrative cyclization of allyl alcohol to cyclic ether catalyzed by a Cp-ruthenium complex and a chiral pyridinecarboxylic acid, (R)-X-NaphPyCOOH, density functional theory (DFT) calculations were performed. According to the DFT calculations, the rate determining step is the dehydrative sigma-allyl formation step with Delta G(double dagger) = 18.1 kcal mol(-1) at 80 degrees C. This agrees well with the experimental data (Delta G(double dagger) = 19.01 kcal mol(-1) at 80 degrees C). The DFT result showed that both hydrogen and halogen bonds play a key role in the high enantioselectivity by facilitating the major R,SRu- catalyzed reaction pathway via a sigma-allyl Ru intermediate to generate the major (S)-product. In contrast, the reaction is sluggish in the presence of the diastereomeric R,RRu catalyst with an apparent activation energy of 33.1 kcal mol(-1); the minor (R)-product is formed via a typical pi-allyl Ru intermediate and via a minor pathway for the cyclization step. In addition, the calculated activation Gibbs free energies, 14.4 kcal mol(-1) for I < 16.8 kcal mol(-1) for Br < 18.1 kcal mol(-1) for Cl, reproduced the observed halogen-dependent reactivity with the (R)-X-Naph-PyCOOH ligands. The origin of the halogen trend was clarified by a structural decomposition analysis.