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Developing new transition metal-catalyzed asymmetric cycloadditions for the synthesis of five-membered carbocycles (FMCs) is a research frontier in reaction development due to the ubiquitous presence of chiral FMCs in various functional molecules. Reported here is our discovery of a highly enantioselective intramolecular 3+2 cycloaddition of yne-alkylidenecyclopropanes (yne-ACPs) to bicyclo3.3.0octadiene and bicyclo4.3.0nonadiene molecules using a cheap Co catalyst and commercially available chiral ligand (S)-Xyl-BINAP. This reaction avoids the use of precious Pd and Rh catalysts, which are usually the choices for 3+2 reactions with ACPs. The enantiomeric excess in the present reaction can be up to 92 %. Cationic cobalt(I) species was suggested by experiments as the catalytic species. DFT calculations showed that this 3+2 reaction starts with oxidative cyclometallation of alkyne and ACP, followed by ring opening of the cyclopropyl (CP) group and reductive elimination to form the cycloadduct. This mechanism is different from previous 3+2 reactions of ACPs, which usually start from CP cleavage, not from oxidative cyclization.
Xiao et al. (Sun,) studied this question.