Journal of the American Chemical Society, Vol.140, No.2, 606-609, 2018
CuH-Catalyzed Asymmetric Reduction of alpha,beta-Unsaturated Carboxylic Acids to beta-Chiral Aldehydes
The copper hydride (CuH)-Catalyzed enantioselective reduction of alpha,beta-unsaturated carboxylic acids to saturated aldehydes is reported. This protocol provides a new method to access a variety of beta-chiral aldehydes in good yields, with high levels of enantioselectivity and broad functional group tolerance. A reaction pathway involving a ketene intermediate is proposed based on preliminary mechanistic studies and density functional theory calculations.