Chiral Dirhodium(II) Complexes for Catalytic Asymmetric Synthesis

The product 1 is the optically active chiral dirhodium (II) complexes, developed by Hashimoto and his co-workers. It is used as catalyst for the chiral ylide formation by decomposition of diazo compounds. The ylides are the active chemical species with which positively charged hetero atoms and carbanions adjoin, and are utilized for various reactions based on the characteristics of each hetero atom. Especially, rearrangement and cycloaddition based on the ylide formation are useful as skeleton-building methods of the natural products and biologically active compounds.

Wide variety of chiral catalytic reactions using 1 have been reported.¹⁾ For example, chiral 1,3-dipolar cycloaddition of carbonyl ylide using 1, under mild conditions, can obtain the cycloadduct 2 enantioselectively within the short-period of time.²⁾