Catalytic Asymmetric Synthesis with Rh−Diene Complexes:  1,4-Addition of Arylboronic Acids to Unsaturated Esters

A general route to enantioenriched tert-butyl 3,3-diarylpropanoates is presented. These useful building blocks are prepared via an asymmetric rhodium-catalyzed conjugate addition of arylboronic acids to unsaturated tert-butyl esters in the presence of chiral dienes as ligands. The addition of both electron-poor and electron-rich boronic acids proceeds smoothly with various enoates in 63-90% yield with high enantioselectivites (89-94% ee). [reaction: see text]