Herein, we report an efficient method for the enantioselective construction of axially chiral tetraphenylethylene (TPE) via N-heterocyclic carbene (NHC)-catalyzed desymmetrization of prochiral isophthalaldehyde-derived TPEs. Both aliphatic alcohols and phenols were well-tolerated, affording the atropisomeric TPEs in good yields and enantioselectivities. Mechanistic investigations reveal that desymmetrization is a key contributor to enantioselective control, and the following kinetic resolution further enhances the enantioselectivity. Gram-scale synthesis and late-stage functionalization of pharmaceuticals further validated the practicality and potential of this method.
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Wang et al. (2026) studied this question.
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