Design of chiral boronate-substituted acrylanilides.: Self-activation and boron-transmitted 1,8-stereoinduction in [4+2] cycloaddition

The [4+2] cycloaddition of ortho-boronoanilide dienophile 4 with cyclopentadiene was found to proceed faster than both its para isomer 8 and the unsubstituted derivative 6, thereby confirming that self-activation by internal coordination is operative in the case of 4. Chiral boronic esters derivatives 9–13 provided a small level of remote 1,8-stereoinduction transmitted through a putative tetrahedral stereogenic boronate complex. These results show that dialkoxyboronic esters can operate as weak, internal Lewis acids and activate carbonyl-containing functionalities in cycloaddition reactions.