Lewis Acid-Catalyzed Asymmetric Selenocyanation of β-Ketoesters with N -Selenocyanatosaccharin

The first electrophilic asymmetric selenocyanation has been achieved in the presence of Ni(OTf) 2 and ( R, R )-DBFOX/Ph using N -selenocyanatosaccharin as the new selenocyanation reagent. Thus, a series of α-selenocyanato-β-keto esters were synthesized with high yields (up to 99%) and good ee values (up to 92% ee). The readily preparation of the reagent and high enantioselectivity make this methodology much practical for the synthesis of chiral selenocyanates.