Journal of the American Chemical Society, Vol.142, No.32, 13695-13700, 2020
The Silicon-Hydrogen Exchange Reaction: A Catalytic sigma-Bond Metathesis Approach to the Enantioselective Synthesis of Enol Silanes
The use of chiral enol silanes in fundamental transformations such as Mukaiyama aldol, Michael, and Mannich reactions as well as Saegusa-Ito dehydrogenations has enabled the chemical synthesis of enantiopure natural products and valuable pharmaceuticals. However, accessing these intermediates in high enantiopurity has generally required the use of either stoichiometric chiral precursors or stoichiometric chiral reagents. We now describe a catalytic approach in which strongly acidic and confined imidodiphosphorimidates (IDPi) catalyze highly enantioselective interconversions of ketones and enol silanes. These "siliconhydrogen exchange reactions" enable access to enantiopure enol silanes via tautomerizing sigma-bond metatheses, either in a deprotosilylative desymmetrization of ketones with allyl silanes as the silicon source or in a protodesilylative kinetic resolution of racemic enol silanes with a carboxylic acid as the silyl acceptor.