Theoretical Investigation on the Chiral Diamine-Catalyzed Epoxidation of Cyclic Enones: Mechanism and Effects of Cocatalyst

The asymmetric epoxidation of 2-cyclohexen-1-one with aqueous H(2)O(2) as oxidant, 1,2-diaminocyclohexane as catalyst, and a Brønsted acid trifluoroacetic acid (TFA) as cocatalyst has been studied by performing density functional theory calculations. It is confirmed that the catalyzed epoxidation proceeds via sequential nucleophilic addition and ring-closure processes involving a ketiminium intermediate. Four possible pathways associated with two Z isomers and two E isomers of ketiminium have been explored in detail. Our calculation indicates that these four pathways have high barriers and a small energy gap between two more favorable R and S pathways. We have analyzed the effects of the TFA anion and H(2)O on the activity and enantioselectivity of catalytic epoxidation. It is found that the TFA anion acts as a counterion to stabilize the transition states of the catalytic epoxidation by hydrogen-bond acceptance, leading to decreases in the barriers of the nucleophilic addition and ring-closure processes. The most significant decrease occurred in the ring-closure step of the Z-R-pathway, resulting in H-bond-induced enantioselectivity. Our calculations also show that water cooperates with TFA to further increase the reaction rate significantly.