Simple and efficient heterogeneous copper catalysts for enantioselective C-H carbene insertion

Org Lett. 2007 Feb 15;9(4):731-3. doi: 10.1021/ol070092y. Epub 2007 Jan 27.

Abstract

Immobilized box-Cu complexes are able to efficiently catalyze the insertion of a carbene, from methyl phenyldiazoacetate, into C-H bonds of THF, with high enantioselectivity (up to 88% ee). The immobilization not only allows recovery and reuse of the enantioselective catalyst but also provides an improvement in the selectivities from the values obtained in solution, probably due to a confinement effect of the bidimensional support. [reaction: see text].