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AssigneeMonsanto Company
InventorsWilliam S. Knowles, Milton J. Sabacky
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Process for the homogeneous catalytic hydrogenation of .beta.-substituted-.alpha.-acylamido-acrylic acids which yields, after hydrogenation, an optically active mixture. The process comprises the hydrogenation of .beta.-substituted-.alpha.-acylamido-acrylic acids in the presence of an optically active coordinated metal complex hydrogenation catalyst, in which the metal is selected from the group consisting of rhodium, iridium, ruthenium, osmium, palladium and platinum. This process is a generalized process for any asymmetric hydrogenation of .beta.-substituted-.alpha.-acylamido-acrylic acids in which one .alpha.-amino acid enantiomorph is the desired end-product. It is especially useful for the preparation of .alpha.-amino acids found in nature which possess optical activity and which have a hydrogen attached to the asymmetric center. This invention also relates to new optically active coordinated metal complex hydrogenation catalysts.
An optically active metal coordination complex of the formula M.sup.1 X.sub.n L.sub.3 wherein M.sup.1 is rhodium, X is selected from the group consisting of hydrogen, chlorine, fluorine, bromine and iodine, n is one of the integers one or three;
A catalyst comprising a solution of a metal selected from the group consisting of rhodium, iridium, ruthenium, osmium, palladium and platinum and at least one equivalent of a phosphine or arsine ligand per mole of metal, provided that the ligand is optically active.
A solid, cationic coordination rhodium complex containing 2 equivalents of an optically active phosphine or arsine ligand per mole of rhodium and a chelating bis olefin.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.