The Leuckartreaction of 2-norbornanone and (1R)-N-(3,3-dimethyl-2-oxo-1-norbornyl)acetamide ent-1b furnishes the expected N-(2-norbornyl)formamides 11 and ent-10 in good yield. Surprisingly, under the same reaction conditions, the (1R)-N-(7,7-dimethyl-2-oxo-1-norbornyl)acetamide 1a gives only 10, the enantiomeric form of the product obtained from ent-1b. An explanation of these results is given and
The reaction of 2-norbornanones bearing an amine derivative in the bridgehead position with formamide and formic acid yields enantiomerically pure 1,2-norbornane diamides. These compounds are excellent precursors of chiral vicinal diamines, which have been increasingly used due to their numerous applications in medicinal chemistry and asymmetric synthesis. The rigid structure of the norbornane framework allows the study of conformational equilibrium in the formamide groups and its dependence on other substituents in the molecule. (C) 2001 Published by Elsevier Science Ltd.