Organocatalytic atroposelective construction of axially chiral arylquinones.
basic_science · Level V
Where this comes from
- Record sourced from PubMed, PMID 31537811.
- Also identified by DOI 10.1038/s41467-019-12269-4 and PMC identifier 6753127.
- Licence recorded as CC BY.
- The licence permits redistribution, so the abstract is shown in full and the full text is available from the publisher.
Abstract
Atropisomeric biaryl motifs are ubiquitous in chiral catalysts and ligands. Numerous efficient strategies have been developed for the synthesis of axially chiral biaryls. In contrast, the asymmetric construction of o-quinone-aryl atropisomers has yet to be realized. Inspired by the rapid progress of the chemistry of biaryls, here we present our initial investigations about the atroposelective construction of axially chiral arylquinones by a bifunctional chiral phosphoric acid-catalyzed asymmetric conjugate addition and central-to-axial chirality conversion. With o-naphthoquinone as both the electrophile and the oxidant, three types of arylation counterparts, namely 2-naphthylamines, 2-naphthols and indoles, are utilized to assemble a series of atropisomeric scaffolds in good yields and excellent enantioselectivities. This approach not only expands the axially chiral library but also offers a route to a class of potential, chiral biomimetic catalysts.