Demonstrates the efficient conversion of chiral epoxides into cyclopropanes, indicating versatile applications in organic synthesis.
-enabled, enantiospecific "Homo-Boron-Wittig" cyclopropanation that converts chiral epoxides to cyclopropylboronic esters using boron-stabilized α-carbanions derived from geminal diboryl alkanes. The reaction tolerates diverse functional groups and accommodates monosubstituted, 1,2-disubstituted, 1,1-disubstituted, and trisubstituted epoxides, delivering densely substituted cyclopropanes─including tertiary boronic esters and tri-, tetra-, and pentasubstituted products─with excellent enantiospecificity. Mechanistic experiments support boron-to-zinc transmetalation under the reaction conditions, and DFT calculations indicate a concerted intramolecular substitution pathway that enforces stereochemical inversion and rationalizes the observed diastereoselectivity. Subsequent diastereoconvergent radical cross-coupling improves diastereoselectivity while preserving enantiopurity, highlighting the value of these products as versatile cyclopropane linchpins.
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Lei et al. (2026) studied this question.
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