Computationally Designed and Experimentally Confirmed Diastereoselective Rhodium-Catalyzed Pauson−Khand Reaction at Room Temperature

The computational analysis of the rhodium-catalyzed Pauson-Khand reaction indicates that the key transition state is highly charge-polarized, wherein different diastereoisomers have distinctively different charge polarization patterns. Experimental studies demonstrate that chloro-enynes provide the optimal σ-electron-withdrawing group to promote polarization and thereby reduce the activation barrier to provide a highly diastereoselective reaction at room temperature.