Predicting the enantioselectivity of the copper-catalysed cyclopropanation of alkenes by using quantitative quadrant-diagram representations of the catalysts.

We present a new methodology to predict the enantioselectivity of asymmetric catalysis based on quantitative quadrant-diagram representations of the catalysts and quantitative structure-selectivity relationship (QSSR) modelling. To account for quadrant occupation, we used two types of molecular steric descriptors: the Taft-Charton steric parameter (ν(Charton)) and the distance-weighted volume (V(W) ). By assigning the value of the steric descriptors to each of the positions of the quadrant diagram, we generated the independent variables to build the multidimensional QSSR models.

C1-symmetric versus C2-symmetric ligands in enantioselective copper-bis(oxazoline)-catalyzed cyclopropanation reactions.

A thorough experimental and theoretical study of the enantioselective cyclopropanation of alkenes catalyzed by chiral bis(oxazoline)- and azabis(oxazoline)-copper complexes, which comprise a new family of ligands that lack C2 symmetry, has been conducted. Surprisingly high enantioselectivities were observed with some of these ligands, which were rationalized on the basis of molecular modeling studies. The course of the asymmetric induction in connection with ligand symmetry and the implications for supported enantioselective catalysts are discussed.

QM/MM modeling of enantioselective pybox-ruthenium- and box-copper-catalyzed cyclopropanation reactions: scope, performance, and applications to ligand design.

An extensive comparison of full-QM (B3LYP) and QM/MM (B3LYP:UFF) levels of theory has been made for two enantioselective catalytic systems, namely, Pybox-Ru and Box-Cu complexes, in the cyclopropanation of alkenes (ethylene and styrene) with methyl diazoacetate. The geometries of the key reaction intermediates and transition structures calculated at the QM/MM level are generally in satisfactory agreement with full-QM calculated geometries. More importantly, the relative energies calculated at the QM/MM level are in good agreement with those calculated at the full-QM level in all cases.