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As a fundamental and synthetically useful C-C bond formation reaction, the aldol reaction is one of the most versatile transformations in organic synthesis. However, despite extensive research on asymmetric versions of the reaction, a unified method for stereoselective access to the complementary syn and anti diastereomeric products remains to be developed. In this study, we developed a synergistic palladium/chiral Lewis base system that overcomes the inherent diastereoselectivity bias of aldol reactions and, as a result, allowed us to achieve the first diastereodivergent coupling reactions of alkoxyallenes with pentafluorophenol esters. Computational studies suggest a mechanism involving an intermolecular protonative hydropalladation pathway rather than a palladium-hydride migratory insertion pathway. The origin of the stereochemistry for this synergistic catalysis system is rationalized by DFT calculations.
Zhu et al. (Fri,) studied this question.