Enantioenriched benzofused 5- and 6- membered rings continue to be found as notable motifs in important molecules such as pharmaceuticals and natural products. A key synthetic strategy towards accessing these structures is via a metal-catalyzed intermolecular carbometalation step across a substituted olefin or alkyne. This review emphasizes recent advances towards accessing enantioenriched benzofused 5- and 6- membered rings via intermolecular carbometalation strategy, catalyzed by late and early transition metals. Through covering the key mechanistic investigations and computed conformational analyses, this review hopes to allow for a more unified understanding of how asymmetric control is attained across a diverse array of metals and ligands, and to highlight significant advances made in the past decade.
Jans et al. (Tue,) studied this question.