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 science, scientific study of the structure, properties, and reactions of organic compounds and organic matter, organic materials, i.e., matter in its various forms that contain ...

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 over 500 amino acids exist in nature, by far the most important are the 22 α-amino acids incorporated into proteins. Only these 22 a ...

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 metho ...

.''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 (: tetrahedra or tetrahedrons), also known as a triangular pyramid, is a polyhedron composed of four triangular Face (geometry), faces, six straight Edge (geometry), edges, and four vertex (geometry), vertices. The tet ...

, 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 center, 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 auxil ...

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. Glycine is one of the proteinogenic amino acids. It is encoded by all the codons starting with GG (G ...

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 deproton ...

is converted into a

2,5-Diketopiperazine 2,5-Diketopiperazine is an organic compound with the formula (NHCH2C(O))2. The compound features a six-membered ring containing two amide functional group, groups at opposite positions in the ring. It was first compound containing a peptide bo ...

(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 physiological ...

). Double O-

methylation Methylation, in the chemistry, chemical sciences, is the addition of a methyl group on a substrate (chemistry), substrate, or the substitution of an atom (or group) by a methyl group. Methylation is a form of alkylation, with a methyl group replac ...

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, such as changing one atom. An achiral species which can be converted to a chiral in two steps is called proprochiral. A molecule ha ...

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 the method: One face of the

carbanion In organic chemistry, a carbanion is an anion with a lone pair attached to a tervalent carbon atom. This gives the carbon atom a negative charge. Formally, a carbanion is the conjugate base of a carbon acid: : where B stands for the base (chemist ...

ic center is shielded by

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

from the

isopropyl In organic chemistry, a propyl group 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 ...

residue on valine. The reaction of the anion with an

alkyl iodide Organoiodine chemistry is the study of the synthesis and properties of organoiodine compounds, or organoiodides, organic compounds that contain one or more carbon–iodine bonds. They occur widely in organic chemistry, but are relatively rare ...

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

enantiomer In chemistry, an enantiomer (Help:IPA/English, /ɪˈnænti.əmər, ɛ-, -oʊ-/ Help:Pronunciation respelling key, ''ih-NAN-tee-ə-mər''), also known as an optical isomer, antipode, or optical antipode, is one of a pair of molecular entities whi ...

. In the final step the dipeptide is cleaved by

acidic An acid is a molecule or ion capable of either donating a proton (i.e. hydrogen cation, H+), known as a Brønsted–Lowry acid, or forming a covalent bond with an electron pair, known as a Lewis acid. The first category of acids are the ...

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 from RNA. The word "proteinogenic" means "protein creating". Throughout known life, there are 22 genetically encoded (proteinogenic) ...

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 sing ...

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 rati ...

External links

Schöllkopf method @ themerckindex.cambridgesoft.com

References

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