Synthesis and Application of New , Optically Active Compounds as Catalysts and Ligands in Enantioselective Reactions

New methods for efficient preparation of optically active compounds developed recently are reported. Combination of selective organometallic, organocatalytic, phase transfer catalytic and catalytic hydrogenation reactions provided numerous new optically active members of the families of atropisomeric 1-phenylpyrrole derivatives, 4-aminobutan-1-ol and 3,4-disubstituted pyrrolidine derivatives and optically active αand β-aminophosphonic acids. The products can be used as valuable new chiral ligands or organocatalysts and can serve as building blocks of practically important biologically active compounds.


Introduction
The steric arrangement of compounds has crucial role in the formation of molecular interactions.Receptor-drug interactions are illustrative examples of this fact, because the most of the biological targets are chiral.In these cases, the different stereoisomers of a compound may cause diverse biological responses.This observation has initiated numerous research programs in order to find efficient synthetic methods for preparation of the useful pure enantiomer of biologically active ingredients.Such expectation resulted in the development of the basic methods of asymmetric synthesis.In the last fifty years dozens of chiral organometallic complexes and organocatalysts (chiral organic molecules without coordinated metal atom) have been developed and applied successfully [1,2].Reports on preparations of enantiomerically enriched chiral compounds frequently contain data on development of new chiral catalysts or ligands with the aim of finding the optimum preparation method for the target compounds.On the other hand, optically active intermediates of biologically active compounds may serve as chiral auxiliaries or precursors of chiral ligands or catalysts.Such a synergistic combination of research work was acomplished in our laboratory in the last decade.Systematic development of special diastereo-and enantioselective reactions has been carried out in order to find new methods for preparation of the following groups of compound: A) multifuctionalised atropisomeric 1-phenylpyrrole derivatives, B) optically active 4-aminobutan-1-ol and 3,4-disubstituted pyrrolidine derivatives, C) optically active α-and β-aminophosphonic acids.Each group of compounds can be treated as intermediates of biologically active entities.In addition the members of group A were tested as chiral ligands while the members of group B can be used as precursors of biologically active compounds or chiral catalysts.Members of group C were prepared as important surrogates of natural α-and β-amino acids.In this short review we summarize our recent results achieved in the above mentioned projects.
Enantioselective addition of organozinc reagents to aldehydes is one of the most important synthetic methods for the preparation of enantioenriched secondary alcohols, [11,12] which are key intermediates in the preparation of valuable chiral biologically active compounds [13].Therefore this reaction was choosen as a test of the efficiency of our new-found atropisomeric amino alcohol ligands.
Noyori and his coworkers published the successful application of DAIB [14] in the above mentioned enantioselective addition to produce optically active 1-arylpropanols (Fig. 1).

Resolution of 1-phenyl-1H-pyrrole dicarboxylic acids
Optically active 1-(6-carboxy-2-substituted phenyl)-1H-pyrrole-2-carboxylic acids can be suitable starting materials of the planned amino alcohol synthesis.In order to get such compounds, preparation of the racemic dicarboxylic acids was accomplished on the basis of our previous achivements.
A highly efficient resolution process was also developed for 3a dicarboxylic acid using (R)-phenylglycine methyl ester ((R)-4) as new resolving agent and the optimum parameters of the diastereoisomeric salt crystallization were experimentally determined [25].It was found that the salt contains the practically pure diacid enantiomer ((S)-3a) after short (2-4 h) crystallization time (Fig. 3), but the enantiomer content of the salt gradually decreases during longer crystallization because of the slow racemization of the resolving agent.
On the basis of this observation a new second order asymmetric transformation of (RS)-4 was accomplished in a toluene/ acetone/water mixture using (S)-3a as resolving agent.This way practically the whole amount (92%) of racemic (RS)-4 was transformed into (R)-4 enantiomer (ee 95%, Fig. 4) [25].

Regioselective bromination of 1-arylsubstituted pyrroles
Mono-and dimetalation reactions are convenient methods for functionalization of 1-aryl-1H-pyrroles, however, organometallic 1-aryl-1H-pyrrole derivatives can also be prepared via halogen/metal interconversion between halogenated 1-aryl-1H-pyrroles and organometallic reagents.Therefore a new functionalization method has been developed in our group using sequential bromination and halogen/metal exchange reactions [26].Optimal conditions of the selective brominations were experimentally determined.It was found that the most selective reactions can be carried out with N-bromosuccinimide (NBS) in dimethylformamide.Under such conditions, selective bromination of the pyrrole Cα' or Cβ' positions was achieved (Fig. 5).Further bromination of 3a and its 2-bromo derivative provided Cα' brominated product, exclusively.However, clean Cβ' bromination of the pyrrole moiety was observed when the heteroaromatic ring contained an electron withdrawing substituent in Cα (pyrrole C2) position (Fig. 5).The positions of the bromine atoms were confirmed by single crystal X-ray diffraction measurements.
Combination of the new, regioselective bromination methods and organometallic reactions led us to prepare the Cα' (5) and Cβ' (6) brominated regioisomers of 1-[2-carboxy-6-(trifluoromethyl)phenyl]-1H-pyrrole-2-carboxylic acid (3a, Fig. 6) [26].Further bromine/lithium exchange reactions or other C-C coupling reactions can be used for diverse functionalization of the pyrrole ring.Thus, the electronic and steric behaviours of the amino alcohol type target compounds can easily be modified in order to provide stereochemically more stable and more active new catalysts and ligands.
As it was mentioned above, addition of diethylzinc to benzaldehyde was choosen to test the utility of the prepared new chiral amino alcohols as enantioselective catalysts.Amino alcohol (S)-9 (R 1 = H, R 2 = 2-Pr, R 3 = Ph) proved an efficient    catalyst ligand in the addition reaction.The (S)-enantiomer of 1-phenylpropanol (2) was obtained in good (80%) yield and 86% enantiomeric excess by loading 5 mol% ligand.Consequently, the first, efficient member of a new, atropisomeric, 1-aryl-1H-pyrrole type family of chiral catalyst precursors was synthesized and tested by our group for asymmetric catalytic reaction (Fig. 8) [27].The prepared compounds probably also catalyse the addition reactions of other organozinc reagents to aromatic aldehydes and can be used in other known enantioselective reactions as catalysts.

Synthesis of optically active 2,3-disubstituted 1,4-dihydroxybutane and 4-aminobutan-1-ol derivatives via hydrogenolysis of O-protected hydroxyoxetanes over palladium
Optically active 1,4-diols are useful intermediates for the synthesis of biologically active heterocycles.Ring closure reaction between the two hydroxyl groups is a well known route to produce non-racemic tetrahydrofurans and pyrrolidines [28].During the heterogeneous catalytic hydrogenolysis of ( 12) a potential starting material, which can be used for preparing optically active, practically important tetrahydrofuran or pyrrolidine derivatives, was formed (Fig. 9).

Effect of solvents
As known [31], in the catalytic hydrogenations both the selectivity of a reaction and the activity of a catalyst can be influenced by using appropriate solvents.The results of the hydrogenolysis of 11 in different organic solvents, over 10% Pd/C (Selcat Q) catalyst are summarized in Table 1.
In methanol, only compound 13 was formed at atmospheric pressure and 30 °C in a fast reaction (1 h), but even at higher pressure (10 bar) and after longer reaction time (8 h) no changes were observed in the course of the hydrogenation   of 11, i.e. the oxetane ring was opened selectively.Using tetrahydrofuran or ethyl acetate similar results were obtained as in methanol, but the complete conversion of 11 required longer reaction time (8 and 24 h).In dichloromethane, however, the formation of compound 12 was also observed beside that of compound 13.After 4 h reaction time, at atmospheric pressure and 30 °C, the conversion of 11 was 87% and the yields of compound 12 and 13 were 15 and 85%, respectively.On the basis of these results, we were led to the conclusion that there are traces of acid in dichloromethane which could catalyse the removal of trityl group, because acidic conditions are favourable for the detritylation reaction [32].Further hydrogenation of 11 at higher pressure (10 bar), after 16 h, provided complete conversion of 11, but compound 12 was achieved with 70% yield only.When the temperature was raised to 50 °C, no compound 13 was detected after 8 h, i.e. the cleavage of trityl group took place completely, but the yield of 12 decreased to 56%.This was, presumably, due to side-reactions, such as hydrolysis of the benzoyl group, which can be attributed to the higher temperature.Using catalytic amount of mineral acid (HCl) in methanol or that of a weaker organic one (p-TsOH) in dichloromethane, the hydrogenation of 11 at 10 bar and 30 °C, after 4 h reaction time, resulted in similar lower yields of 12 (61 and 80%, respectively) as it was observed under the aforementioned conditions (dichloromethane, 50 °C).These were also due to side-reactions (e.g.hydrolysis of the ester bond), which can be ascribed to the strong acidic conditions.
To avoid the unwanted side-reactions, a mixture of dichloromethane and methanol was applied in the hydrogenation of 11.Both the 50:50 (v/v%) and the 20:80 (v/v%) dichloromethane/methanol mixtures provided the same results, i.e. compound 12 was selectively formed with 100% yield (by complete conversion of 11), over palladium on carbon, at 10 bar and 30 °C, after 8 h reaction time.
On the basis of these results, it can be stated that methanol, similarly to other protic and polar solvents, is very efficient in the hydrogenolysis of oxetane ring and provides high reaction rate, while dichloromethane makes acidic conditions which are advantageous for the removal of trityl protecting group by the cleavage of carbon-oxygen bond.

Mechanistic considerations
To clarify the role of acids in the reductive cleavage of trityl group, two experiments were carried out starting from the alcohol 13.First, a hydrolytic reaction was performed, when the alcohol was dissolved in dichloromethane containing catalytic amount of p-toluenesulphonic acid (5%), but no Pd/C catalyst was added to the reaction mixture.Under these conditions slow formation of (+)-(3R,4S)-3-benzoyloxy-4-benzyltetrahdyrofuran ( 14), triphenylmethanol and only trace amounts of 12 were observed (Fig. 11).Compound 14 was isolated with 50% yield.Formation of 14 can be explained by the protonation of the primary hydroxyl group of 13 (intermediate A) followed by an intramolecular nucleophilic reaction.Alternatively, consecutive protonation of the oxygen atom situated in the trityloxymethyl group (intermediate B) and intramolecular nucleophilic reaction may result in the same product (compound 14) and triphenylmethanol.In a second experiment compound 13 was hydrogenated in the same solvent, over 10% Pd/C catalyst, in the presence of p-toluenesulphonic acid.In this case a fast reductive cleavage of the triphenylmethyl group was observed yielding a 5:1 mixture of the diol (12) and the tetrahydrofuran derivative (14).
These experiments demonstrated that an acid catalyst is essential for efficient, fast reductive cleavage of the trityl group.Without Pd/C, a slow hydrolytic reaction takes place providing compound 14 as a main product, while it is only a side-product of the catalytic reduction.It has to be emphasized, these chemical transformations have no influence on the configurations of the stereogenic carbon atoms, therefore, starting from optically active 11, the products (12, 13 and 14) were obtained with the same ee.
Compound 15 was synthesized from (-)-(2S,3S,1'S)-3-[1'hydroxy-2'-(dibenzylamino)ethyl]-2-phenyloxetane, prepared according to our procedure described in [34], with benzoyl chloride, in the presence of butyllithium, in tetrahydrofuran (Fig. 13) [35].As well known, debenzylation is a common method to obtain the active forms of amines or alcohols from the corresponding N-or O-protected derivatives [36,37].Removing the benzyl group attached to nitrogen, however, does not readily take place as its cleavage from oxygen does [38,39].Moreover, the products of hydrogenolysis are strongly basic amines which can deactivate the supported precious metal catalysts due to their poisoning effects [40][41][42], therefore a higher amount of catalyst or adding acids are necessary to complete the reaction.

Effect of solvents
The results of the hydrogenolysis of 15 in different organic solvents, over 10% Pd/C (Selcat Q) catalyst are summarized in Table 2.In methanol, the conversion of compound 15 was complete at atmospheric pressure and 30 °C after 4 h reaction time, but the wanted compound 16 was not formed.Surprisingly a side-product, (2R,3S)-N-(3-benzyl-2,4-dihydroxybutyl)benzamide (17), was isolated from the reaction mixture with 20% yield.Further hydrogenation of 15 also provided compound 17 with a higher isolated yield (52%).It means that after opening the oxetane ring, the two benzyl groups were removed already at atmospheric pressure and room temperature, but hydrogenolysis of secondary amines, in general, requires higher pressure (>4 bar) and temperature (>40 °C) [43].Using tetrahydrofuran or dichloromethane no conversion of 15 was observed even after 12-24 h reaction time and at 10 bar and 30 °C.In dichloromethane, however, compound 16 was obtained with 70% yield after 24 h, when the temperature was raised to 45 °C, but it was isolated in a form of hydrogen chloride salt (16.HCl).Moreover, no compound 13 was detected.This was due to the hydrodehalogenating ability of palladium [44], i.e. under such conditions palladium is able to hydrogenolyse dichloromethane, and the hydrogen chloride formed gives a salt with compound 16.
To avoid the unwanted side-reactions, a mixture of dichloromethane and methanol was applied in the hydrogenation of 15, similarly to our previous results concerning the hydrogenolysis of O-protected hydroxyoxetanes [30].The effect of solvent mixtures with different composition on the conversion of 11 and the isolated yield of 16 is given in Table 3.
As seen, in the 50:50 (v/v%) dichloromethane/methanol mixture compound 16 was isolated with 50% yield (by complete conversion of 15), over palladium on carbon, at 10 bar and 30 °C, after 4 h reaction time.Similarly to dichloromethane used by itself, no formation of compound 13 was observed, but compound 16 was in a form of free base.Using a 80:20 (v/v%) mixture the complete conversion of 15 required longer reaction time (20 h), moreover the isolated yield of 16 became slightly better (50 → 54%).Whereas, increasing the amount of methanol to 30 (v/v%) the rate of hydrogenolysis also increased, namely 16 h reaction time was sufficient to complete the hydrogenation of 15, as well as compound 16 was achieved with 79% isolated yield.Further increase in isolated yield of 16 was obtained (87%), when this reaction was repeated using about ten times higher amount of starting material (0.3 → 2.85 g), presumably due to the smaller loss of 16 suffered during the working-up procedure.
According to our results, it can be stated that methanol, similarly to other protic and polar solvents, is very efficient in the hydrogenolysis of oxetane ring and the removal of benzyl protecting group, as well as providing a high reaction rate, while dichloromethane prevents the possibility of side-reactions (e.g.hydrolysis of the ester bond).

Possible reaction mechanism for the formation of side-product (17)
To explain the formation of side-product benzamide derivative 17 we suggested the following mechanism shown in Fig. 14.First, the oxetane ring was opened and a benzyl group was removed by the cleavage of carbon-nitrogen bond in a fast reaction.Then methanol, which was present as a solvent in large excess, could initiate transesterification of the benzoyl ester moiety of 18 in a slow reaction to form methyl benzoate, which could acylate fast the secondary N-monobenzyl aminodiol derivative.Since this N-benzoyl-N-benzyl aminodiol became a tertiary amine again, the hydrogenolysis of benzyl group could take place already at atmospheric pressure and room temperature, over palladium.The appearance of methyl benzoate was proved by GC-MS measurements which gives an indirect evidence of the proposed mechanism.
To demonstrate the practical usefulness of the prepared 1,4-amino alcohol derivative 16, a ring closure reaction was carried out using the Mitsunobu conditions (Fig. 15).Product 19 was isolated in pure form which can also be used as a key intermediate in the synthesis of Balanol analogues [45].
It has to be emphasized, these chemical transformations have no influence on the configurations of the stereogenic carbon atoms, therefore, starting from optically active 15, the products (16 and 19) were obtained with the same ee.Furthermore, these solvent effects also gave evidence that selectivity, yield and rate of the catalytic hydrogenation reactions can be influenced by changing solvents or solvent mixtures.
Since biological activity is strongly influenced by the configuration of the carbon atom adjacent to phosphorus, there is a great demand for the development of methods enabling their preparation in an enantioselective fashion.Catalytic asymmetric reactions constitute one of the most potent and environmentally-friendly methods for introduction of chirality into target molecules.Various efforts using chiral catalysts providing non-racemic α-and β-aminophosphonates were developed in the last decade and have recently been reviewed [56][57][58][59].Among them, stereoselective P-C and C-C coupling approaches can be considered the most preferred methods.
Our aim was to investigate the applicability of α-substituted phosphonates of various CH acidity (21a-21c) as precursors and the proper selection of chiral catalysts of different type (23a-23g) in the synthesis of α-and β-aminophosphonates.We summarize here our recently explored methods of introduction of reactive functional groups in the α-position of the prochiral (21a and 21c) and racemic (21b) aminophosphonate precursor molecules by catalytic enantioselective Michael addition.N-protected aminomethylenephosphonate (21a), α-nitroethylphosphonate (21b) and cyanomethylphosphonate (21c) were chosen as easily accessible starting compounds.As the Michael adducts (22) in hand, 20a could be readily obtained by hydrolysis, 20b and 20c by reduction followed by hydrolysis (Fig. 16).
Asymmetric induction was generated by chiral diols (23a and 23b), by chiral azacrown ethers (23c and 23d) and by bifunctional organocatalysts (23e-23g) respectively (Fig. 17).Applicability of these catalysts depended on the acidity of the carbon atom next to the phosphorus in 21 and the reactivity of the Michael acceptors (23).The chiral backbone of the catalysts involved R,R-TADDOLs (α,α,α',α'-tetraaryl-1,3dioxolane-4,5-dimethanols) (23a and 23f) derived from the natural L-tartaric acid, D-glucose (23c) and chincona moiety (23e-23g), all obtained from easily available natural sources,     while the 1-phenylpyrrole based diol (23b) and 1,1'-bi-2-naphthol (BINOL) catalysts were derived synthetically (23d).According to the mode of action of the catalysts chiral diols (23a and 23b) and chiral azacrown ethers (23c and 23d) act as phase transfer catalysts in a solid-liquid phase reaction.As bifunctional organocatalysts, they are small molecules having enzyme like activity capable of H-bonding with both the substrate and the reagent molecule.Organocatalysis is a relatively new and ever growing field in asymmetric catalysis because of their high selectivity, low toxicity and relative insensivity to the reaction conditions.At present cinchona based thiourea (23e) and squaramide (23g) catalysts are the most successful group of the organocatalysts [60].Though 21a seems to be an obvious starting compound to introduce a functional group in the α-position a deprotonation by a strong base is required in the Michael addition due to its low CH acidity (pK a ~23 in DMSO).Thus, chiral diols (23a and 23b) and chiral crown ethers were applied as ligands to generate a chiral transition complex in the process.According to our first method the Michael addition reactions of N-protected phosphonoglycine (21a) to alkyl acrylates and acrylonitrile (24 R 1 = H, R 2 = Me, X = COOEt, COOtBu, CN) were performed.TADDOL (23a) and atropisomer chiral diol (23b) were used as catalysts in the presence of solid potassium, sodium and lithium tert-butylate as base, respectively.The reaction was conducted in dry toluene at low temperature under argon atmosphere and quenched with ammonium chloride after 15 min.The best enantiomeric excess (ee 72%) and chemical yield (88%) were obtained when the bulky tert-butyl acrylate as Michael acceptor, 1.2 equivalent of NaOtBu as base and one equivalent of TADDOL (Ar = Ph) as catalyst were applied.Using the bulkier isopropyl phosphonate esters (21a, R 1 = iPr) did not affect reaction rate, but decreased enantioselectivity.The atropisomer diol catalyst (23b) to be less selective (ee 58%) than TADDOL (23a) probably due to its looser structure.To get a better insight into the catalytic process the dependence of the enantiomeric excess of product 22 (X = COOtBu) of the Michael addition reaction on the enantiomeric purity of catalyst 23a was also determined.A positive nonlinear effect ((+)-NLE) was observed indicating that not only a transition complex involving the substrate 21a and TADDOL of 1:1 ratio might be present, but some associations occurs.Hydrolysis of 22 by a weak acid resulted in a cyclic phosphonate (20a'), which could be further hydrolyzed by means of a strong acid to optically active phosphonoglutaminic acid (20a), a biologically active P-analogue of glutaminic acid.The absolute configuration of 20a was found to be S by comparison of the signs of optical rotation with literature value [61].

Applying chiral azacrown ether catalysts (23c and 23d)
Sugar based azacrown ethers (23a) were synthesised and checked in numerous C-C coupling reactions at our department [62], while similar azacrown ethers bearing BINOL scaffold were designed in our research group and tested first time in the above mentioned aminophosphonate synthesis.We found that both (23c and 23d) efficiently catalyzed the Michael addition of 21a synthon onto a broad variety of Michael acceptors 5 (X = COOEt, COOtBu, CN, CONMe 2 , R 2 = H, Me, R 3 = H, Ph).The reactions were performed in toluene at a temperature of -75 °C in the presence of NaOtBu (1.5 equivalent) and with 10 mol% of catalyst loading.In these experiments catalysts (23c and 23d) bearing 2-methoxyphenylethyl and 3,4-dimethoxyphenylethyl side-arm proved to be the most effective.It seems that the presence of an oxygen atom in an appropriate (5-6 atom) distance in the enfolding podand arm significantly enhanced the stereoselectivity, presumably due to the formation of a three dimensional binding site the sodium cation.Excellent enantioselectivity was obtained in those cases when the electron withdrawing group of the Michael acceptors was cyano group (24, X = CN), such as in acrylonitrile (ee 75-95%), methacrylonitrile (ee 86-96% for the major diastereomer) and trans-cinnamonitrile (ee 71% for the major diastereomer), but the selectivity of all of the catalysts was low in cases of Michael acceptors bearing carboxylic ester groups (24, X = COOEt, COOtBu).The same selectivity could be observed for the diastereoselectivities (99.3/0.7 for the methacrylonitrile, but only 68/32 for tBu methacrylate).It is noteworthy that the accelerating effects of the R-BINOL-and the D-glucose-azacrown ethers on these Michael reactions are similar, while the selectivity of the R-BINOL based family (23d) is somewhat superior to that of the crown ethers with sugar backbone (23c).Hydrolysis of 22 (X = CN, R 2 = Me, R 3 = H) results in methyl substituted optically active phosphonoglutaminic acid (20a, X = COOH, R 2 = Me, R 3 = H).Moreover, the absolute configuration of 22 (X = CN, R 2 = Me, R 3 = H) could be deduced to be (1S,3R) by comparing the experimental CD spectrum with the quantum chemically calculated CD spectra of the four possible optical isomers [63,64].

synthesis of quaternary α-aminophosphonates (20b) starting from α-nitroethylphosphonates (21b)
Quaternary α-aminophosphonates could be useful for biomimetic research, because the incorporation of them into peptides may lend them increased rigidity and resistance to proteases.α-nitroethylphosphonates (21b, W = NO 2 , A = Me) in accordance with our expectations proved to be good synthons, because they can be easily deprotonated by weak bases due to the strong acidity of the α-CH group (pK a ~12 in DMSO).Bifunctional organocatalysts seemed to be the best choice to promote the Michael addition of α-nitroethylphosphonates (21b) to acrylic acid aryl esters (24, X = COOAr, R 2 , R 3 = H).The reaction ran smoothly with a catalyst loading of 10 mol% in toluene at room remperature resulting in 22.All of catalysts 23e and 23g were active and selective, the highest ee (96%) was obtained with benzyl substituted squaramide catalyst (23g, Y = H, Z = vinyl) in the reaction of the bulky 2,6-dimethoxyphenyl acrylate (24).Catalytic hydrogenation of 22 over a Pd/C catalyst was performed resulting in the cyclic quaternary α-aminophosphonate (20b, A = Me).The absolute configuration of a representative example (22, X= COOC 6 H 4 (m-OMe), A = Me, R 2 , R 3 = H) was deduced as S by comparing the experimental and quantum chemically calculated CD spectra [65].

Synthesis of precursors of β-aminophosphonates (20c) starting from cyanomethylphosphonates (21c)
As the CH acidity of 21c is in the medium range (pK a ~17 in DMSO), its Michael addition could be catalyzed by all chiral diols (23a and 23b), azacrown ethers (23c) and organocatalysts (23e and 23f), but in cases of 23a and 23b only diastereoselectivity, and in the case of 23c neither diastereoselectivity, nor enantioselectivity was observed with the Michael acceptors screened.Using cinchona based thiourea organocatalysts (23e) trans-chalcones (24, X = COAr, R 2 = H, R 3 = Ar) proved to be excellent Michael acceptors of diethyl cyanomethyl phosphonate (21c).According to the optimized conditions the reaction was run in toluene at room temperature using 10 mol% catalyst resulting in 22 adduct (W = CN, A = H, X = COAr, R 3 = Ar) in high chemical yield and good enantioselectivity (the best ee 85%, when X = COPh, R 3 = 4-NO 2 Ph).It is noteworthy that the diastereoselection was very modest for all the catalysts and chalcones (typical diastereometric ratio (dr) 55/45).Recently our group designed a new thiourea type organocatalyst having TADDOL backbone (23f) and tested in the above mentioned Michael addition.An improved enantioselectivity (ee 91%) and diastereoselectivity (dr 94/6) was observed with transchalcone (24, X = COPh, R 2 = H, R 3 = Ph), the scope of the reaction seems to be limited, namely all of the other chalcones examined provided medium or low enantioselectivity in a slow reaction.The relative configuration of adducts 22 (W = CN, A = H, X = COAr, R 3 = Ar) could also be deduced from their 13 C NMR spectra.According to the conformations (generated by HyperChem ® 7.5) the large (transoid) coupling for the PCH 2 and the small (cisoid) coupling for the PC Ar1 would correspond to the major (anti: 2S,3S and 2R,3R) isomer, and vice versa.[66].

Conclusions
The above described brief summary of the scientific results achieved recently by our group demonstrates our succesful efforts to find new methods for efficient preparation of optically active compounds.Very first synthesis and application of atropiosomeric 1-phenylpyrrole derivatives and highly selective hydrogenolysis of optically active oxetane and azetidine derivatives provided numerous new chiral compounds.Systematic investigation of optically active TADDOL, chincona alkaloid and atropisomeric biaryl derivatives as catalysts led us to prepare several new, optically active α-amino-and β-aminophosphonates.Some part of the synthesized new products showed excellent properties as chiral ligands or catalysts in different enantioselective reactions.It has to be mentioned, these products can also be used as valuable building blocks of practically important compounds and the products of the enantioselective Michael additions may be applied in drug synthesis as valuable phosphonic acid analogs of aminocarboxylic acids.

Fig. 14 Fig. 15
Fig. 14 Proposed mechanism of the formation of compound 17.

Fig. 17
Fig.17 Choice of chiral catalysts used in Michael additions.

Table 1
Hydrogenolysis of 11 in different solvents

Table 2
Hydrogenolysis of 5 in different solvents a 45 °C.b Prepared in a form of 16.HCl salt.c No formation of compound 13 was observed.