First Catalytic Asymmetric Aldol-Tishchenko Reaction-Insight into the Catalyst Structure and Reaction Mechanism

Unmodified carbonyl compounds are converted in an enantioselective aldol-Tishchenko reaction directly into the chiral adduct by using catalytic amounts of a chiral base prepared in situ [Eq. (1)]. The catalyst was developed through the combination of arrayed catalyst evaluation and informed ligand design. Ad=adamantyl.