Reinvestigation of the Absolute Configurations of Chiral β-Mercaptoalkanones Using Vibrational Circular Dichroism and 1H NMR Analysis.

The absolute configurations of chiral β-mercaptoalkanones were previously assigned on the basis of the 1H NMR anisotropy method using (S)-2-methoxy-2-(1-naphthyl)propionic acid ((S)-MαNP) as the chiral auxiliary. This study presents a reinvestigation of the configurations of 4-mercapto-2-pentanone 1, 4-mercapto-2-heptanone 2, and 2-mercapto-4-heptanone 3. Enantiomers of 1, 2, and 3 were obtained by lipase-catalyzed hydrolyses of the respective acetylthioalkanones. Upon derivatization with (S)-MαNP, the configurations of the reaction products were deduced based on the order of the HPLC elution of the diastereoisomeric thioesters, assuming that the sector rule previously developed for secondary alcohols is also valid for thiols. In addition, the configurations were experimentally determined by vibrational circular dichroism (VCD) and 1H NMR analyses after esterification with (R)-hydratropic acid (HTA) and 2-methoxy-2-phenylacetic acid (MPA). The assignments of the configurations using VCD and NMR analyses of HTA- and MPA-thioesters were in agreement. However, they were opposite to those deduced for (S)-MαNP thioesters via the sector rule. Consequently, the formerly assigned configurations of β-mercaptoalkanones deduced via investigation of (S)-MαNP-derivatives have to be revised.