Highly Enantioselective Cross-Electrophile Aryl-Alkenylation of Unactivated Alkenes

Enantioselective cross-electrophile
reactions remain a challenging
subject in metal catalysis, and with respect to data, studies have
mainly focused on stereoconvergent reactions of racemic alkyl electrophiles.
Here, we report an enantioselective cross-electrophile aryl-alkenylation
reaction of unactivated alkenes. This method provides access to a
number of biologically important chiral molecules such as dihydrobenzofurans,
indolines, and indanes. The incorporated alkenyl group is suitable
for further reactions that can lead to an increase in molecular diversity
and complexity. The reaction proceeds under mild conditions at room
temperature, and an easily accessible chiral pyrox ligand is used
to afford products with high enantioselectivity. The synthetic utility
of this method is demonstrated by enabling the modification of complex
molecules such as peptides, indometacin, and steroids.