Photoassisted Cobalt-Catalyzed Asymmetric Reductive Grignard-Type Addition of Aryl Iodides

Grignard addition is one of the most important methods used for syntheses of alcohol compounds and has been known for over a hundred years. However, research on asymmetric catalysis relies on the use of organometallic nucleophiles. Here, we report the first visible-light-induced cobalt-catalyzed asymmetric reductive Grignard-type addition for synthesizing chiral benzyl alcohols (>50 examples, up to 99% yield, and 99% ee). This methodology has the advantages of mild reaction conditions, good functionality tolerance, excellent enantiocontrol, the avoidance of mass metal wastes, and the use of precious metal catalysts. Kinetic realization studies suggested that migratory insertion of an aryl cobalt species into the aldehyde was the rate-determining step of the reductive addition reaction.