Highly stereoselective synthesis of α-alkyl-α-hydroxycarboxylic acid derivatives catalyzed by a dinuclear zinc complex.
A dinuclear zinc-ProPhenol catalyst enables highly enantioselective nitro-Michael reactions with oxazol-4(5H)-ones as nucleophilic substrates (see scheme, Nap = 2-naphthyl). This work highlights the utility of the ProPhenol family of ligands. The modular nature of these ligands proved crucial in the optimization of reaction conditions to achieve excellent stereoselectivities.
Department of Chemistry, Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94305-5080, USA. bmtrost@stanford.edu
Barry M
BM
Trost
Keiichi
K
Hirano