Enantioselective intermolecular cross Rauhut–Currier reactions of activated alkenes with acrolein

Abstract

The enantioselective intermolecular cross Rauhut–Currier reaction of acrolein with active olefins has been a long-standing challenge because of the competitive MBH reaction and polymerization. Herein a highly enantioselective intermolecular cross Rauhut–Currier reaction of acrolein with 3-acyl acrylates and 2-ene-1,4-diones, which is enabled by newly designed Peng-Phos catalysts. This method is scalable and highly enantioselective (up to 96% ee). Several transformations of the R–C products are carried out to showcase the synthetic utility.