Development of Fmoc-protected acyl imines for C-C bond-forming reactions: The direct synthesis of Fmoc-protected amines

ORGN 637

Timothy J. Peelen, peelen@lvc.edu, Cheryl L. Brophy, clb003@lvc.edu, and Alison E. Hartman, aeh002@lvc.edu. Department of Chemistry, Lebanon Valley College, 101 N. College Ave., Annville, PA 17003
We report a method for the synthesis of Fmoc-protected amines, which are useful in solid phase peptide synthesis and combinatorial chemistry. The new method was developed with the goal of eliminating the numerous protecting/deprotecting steps from previously reported methods to produce a green and economically efficient synthesis. With this goal in mind, we have prepared Fmoc-protected N,O-acetal 1 as a bench-stable reagent in two steps. In the presence of Lewis acids, the N,O-acetal generates the intermediate acyl imine 2 , which is a versatile electrophile for a variety of C-C bond-forming reactions. We will describe applications of N,O-acetal 1 to C-C bond-forming reactions and toward the synthesis of b-amino acids.