Integration of aerobic oxidation and intramolecular asymmetric aza-Friedel-Crafts reactions with a chiral bifunctional heterogeneous catalyst

Chem Sci. 2017 Feb 1;8(2):1356-1359. doi: 10.1039/c6sc03849b. Epub 2016 Oct 5.

Abstract

A new class of chiral bifunctional heterogeneous materials composed of Au/Pd nanoparticles and chiral phosphoric acids as active orthogonal catalysts was prepared by utilizing a facile pseudo-suspension co-polymerization method. It was found that this heterogeneous catalyst was capable of facilitating the sequential aerobic oxidation-asymmetric intramolecular aza-Friedel-Crafts reaction between benzyl alcohols and N-aminoethylpyrroles. Moreover, the designed chiral heterogeneous catalyst could be recovered and reused several times without significant loss of activity or enantioselectivity.