The Sharpless asymmetric aminohydroxylation reaction: optimising ligand/substrate control of regioselectivity for the synthesis of 3- and 4-aminosugars.

An investigation of the factors responsible for the sense and magnitude of regioselectivity in the Sharpless asymmetric aminohydroxylation (AA) has been conducted. Theoretical investigations of ligand-osmium binding geometry and experimental investigations of the Sharpless AA reaction on a series of functionalized pent-2-enoic acid ester substrates demonstrate that the opposite regioselectivity afforded using PHAL and AQN ligands results from a change in substrate orientation with respect to the catalyst. Two distinct ligand binding domains within the catalyst have been proposed that undergo attractive interactions with the substrates.