The Schöllkopf method or Schöllkopf Bis-Lactim Amino Acid Synthesis is a method in

organic chemistry Organic chemistry is a subdiscipline within chemistry involving the scientific study of the structure, properties, and reactions of organic compounds and organic materials, i.e., matter in its various forms that contain carbon atoms.Clayden, J.; ...

for the

asymmetric synthesis Enantioselective synthesis, also called asymmetric synthesis, is a form of chemical synthesis. It is defined by IUPAC as "a chemical reaction (or reaction sequence) in which one or more new elements of chirality are formed in a substrate molecul ...

of chiral

amino acid Amino acids are organic compounds that contain both amino and carboxylic acid functional groups. Although hundreds of amino acids exist in nature, by far the most important are the alpha-amino acids, which comprise proteins. Only 22 alpha am ...

s.Jan Bülle, Aloys Hüttermann : ''Das Basiswissen der organischen Chemie: Die wichtigsten organischen Reaktionen im Labor und in der Natur'', S.310/311, 2000, Wiley-VCH, The method was established in 1981 by

Ulrich Schöllkopf Ulrich Schöllkopf (11 October 1927 – 6 November 1998) was a German chemist and together with Georg Wittig discovered the Wittig reaction in 1956. Later in 1981 he published the synthesis method for amino acids known as the Bislactimether method ...

.''Asymmetric synthesis via heterocyclic intermediates - XXXIX1 : Asymmetric synthesis of (enantiomerically and diastereomerically virtually pure) methyl 2-amino-4,5-epoxy-3-hydroxy-alkanoates and methyl 2-amino-3-hydroxy-4,5-methylene-alkanoates by the bislactimether method''

Tetrahedron In geometry, a tetrahedron (plural: tetrahedra or tetrahedrons), also known as a triangular pyramid, is a polyhedron composed of four triangular faces, six straight edges, and four vertex corners. The tetrahedron is the simplest of all the o ...

, Volume 44, Issue 17, 1988, Pages 5293-5305 Ulrich Schöllkopf, Thomas Tiller, Jürgen Bardenhagen In it glycine is a substrate, valine a

chiral auxiliary In stereochemistry, a chiral auxiliary is a stereogenic group or unit that is temporarily incorporated into an organic compound in order to control the stereochemical outcome of the synthesis. The chirality present in the auxiliary can bias the ...

and the reaction taking place an alkylation.

Reaction mechanism

The dipeptide derived from

glycine Glycine (symbol Gly or G; ) is an amino acid that has a single hydrogen atom as its side chain. It is the simplest stable amino acid (carbamic acid is unstable), with the chemical formula NH2‐ CH2‐ COOH. Glycine is one of the proteinogeni ...

and (R-)

valine Valine (symbol Val or V) is an α-amino acid that is used in the biosynthesis of proteins. It contains an α-amino group (which is in the protonated −NH3+ form under biological conditions), an α- carboxylic acid group (which is in the deprotonat ...

is converted into a 2,5-Diketopiperazine (a cyclic

dipeptide A dipeptide is an organic compound derived from two amino acids. The constituent amino acids can be the same or different. When different, two isomers of the dipeptide are possible, depending on the sequence. Several dipeptides are physiologicall ...

). Double O-

methylation In the chemical sciences, methylation denotes the addition of a methyl group on a substrate, or the substitution of an atom (or group) by a methyl group. Methylation is a form of alkylation, with a methyl group replacing a hydrogen atom. These t ...

gives the bis-lactim. A proton is then abstracted from the

prochiral In stereochemistry, prochiral molecules are those that can be converted from achiral to chiral in a single step. An achiral species which can be converted to a chiral in two steps is called proprochiral. If two identical substituents are attach ...

position on glycine with ''n''-BuLi. The next step decides the

stereoselectivity In chemistry, stereoselectivity is the property of a chemical reaction in which a single reactant forms an unequal mixture of stereoisomers during a non- stereospecific creation of a new stereocenter or during a non-stereospecific transformation of ...

of the method: One face of the

carbanion In organic chemistry, a carbanion is an anion in which carbon is trivalent (forms three bonds) and bears a formal negative charge (in at least one significant resonance form). Formally, a carbanion is the conjugate base of a carbon acid: :R3C ...

ic center is shielded by

steric hindrance Steric effects arise from the spatial arrangement of atoms. When atoms come close together there is a rise in the energy of the molecule. Steric effects are nonbonding interactions that influence the shape ( conformation) and reactivity of ions ...

from the

isopropyl In organic chemistry, propyl is a three-carbon alkyl substituent with chemical formula for the linear form. This substituent form is obtained by removing one hydrogen atom attached to the terminal carbon of propane. A propyl substituent is ofte ...

residue on valine. The reaction of the anion with an

alkyl iodide Organoiodine compounds are organic compounds that contain one or more carbon–iodine bonds. They occur widely in organic chemistry, but are relatively rare in nature. The thyroxine hormones are organoiodine compounds that are required for he ...

will form the alkylated product with a strong preference for just one

enantiomer In chemistry, an enantiomer ( /ɪˈnænti.əmər, ɛ-, -oʊ-/ ''ih-NAN-tee-ə-mər''; from Ancient Greek ἐνάντιος ''(enántios)'' 'opposite', and μέρος ''(méros)'' 'part') – also called optical isomer, antipode, or optical ant ...

. In the final step the dipeptide is cleaved by

acidic In computer science, ACID ( atomicity, consistency, isolation, durability) is a set of properties of database transactions intended to guarantee data validity despite errors, power failures, and other mishaps. In the context of databases, a sequ ...

hydrolysis Hydrolysis (; ) is any chemical reaction in which a molecule of water breaks one or more chemical bonds. The term is used broadly for substitution reaction, substitution, elimination reaction, elimination, and solvation reactions in which water ...

in two amino acid methyl esters which can be separated from each other. With valine Schöllkopf selected the natural

proteinogenic amino acid Proteinogenic amino acids are amino acids that are incorporated biosynthetically into proteins during translation. The word "proteinogenic" means "protein creating". Throughout known life, there are 22 genetically encoded (proteinogenic) amino aci ...

with the largest non-reactive and nonchiral residue in order to achieve the largest possible stereoselectivity, generally speaking

enantiomeric excess In stereochemistry, enantiomeric excess (ee) is a measurement of purity used for chiral substances. It reflects the degree to which a sample contains one enantiomer in greater amounts than the other. A racemic mixture has an ee of 0%, while a sin ...

of over 95% ee is feasible. With the Schöllkopf method all amino acids can be synthesised when a suitable R-I reagent is available. R does not need to be an alkyl group but can also be more complicated. The method is limited to the laboratory for the synthesis of exotic amino acids. Industrial applications are not known. One disadvantage is limited

atom economy Atom economy (atom efficiency/percentage) is the conversion efficiency of a chemical process in terms of all atoms involved and the desired products produced. The simplest definition was introduced by Barry Trost in 1991 and is equal to the ratio ...

External links

Schöllkopf method @ themerckindex.cambridgesoft.com

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Schollkopf method Organic reactions Name reactions Chemical synthesis of amino acids