Rhodium-Catalyzed Regio- and Enantioselective Addition of N-Hydroxyphthalimide to Allenes: A Strategy To Synthesize Chiral Allylic Alcohols

We achieved the first Rh-catalyzed regio- and enantioselective additions of N-hydroxyphthalimide to allenes. This transformation is accomplished via mild reaction conditions, leveraging on Josiphos SL-J003-2 as a chiral ligand to furnish branched O-allyl compounds in good yields with moderate to excellent enantioselectivities. The substrate scope is broad, and various functional groups are tolerated. The utility of this methodology is elaborated by transformation to allylic alcohols with different functional groups as well as to chiral O-allyl hydroxylamines.