title: Highly enantioselective one-pot synthesis of chiral β-hydroxy sulfones via asymmetric transfer hydrogenation in an aqueous medium.
abstract: A mild transformation in an aqueous medium for the one-pot synthesis of optically active β-hydroxy sulfones is described. The intermediates of β-keto sulfones obtained via a nucleophilic substitution reaction of α-bromoketones and sodium sulfinates in H2O/MeOH (1:3, v/v) at 50 °C were reduced through Ru-catalyzed asymmetric transfer hydrogenation in one-pot using HCOONa as a hydrogen source providing a variety of chiral β-hydroxy sulfones with high yields and excellent enantioselectivities.
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Resource Chemistry of Ministry of Education, Shanghai Key Laboratory of Rare Earth Functional Materials, Shanghai Normal University , Shanghai 200234, P. R. China.
authors.forename: Dacheng
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.forename: Tanyu
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Cheng
authors.forename: Qiankun
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Zhao
authors.forename: Jianyou
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Xu
authors.forename: Guohua
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Liu