Synthesis of Ar-BINMOL Ligands by [1,2]-Wittig Rearrangement to Probe Their Catalytic Activity in 1,2-Addition Reactions of Aldehydes with Grignard Reagents

We have demonstrated a highly diastereoselective synthesis of optically pure Ar-BINMOL-derived diols and their analogues. The present study demonstrates a unique cascade chirality transfer in a [1,2]-Wittig rearrangement that leads to chiral diols with three stereogenic centers, which include a chiral sp(3) center at the alcohol and C-2-axial chirality. Screening these ligands in the arylation of aromatic aldehydes with Grignard reagents shows that the naphthyl-substituted BINMOL promotes the aryl transfer reaction in good yields (70-92%) and moderate-to-good enantioselectivities (up to 72% ee), and a series of control experiments substantiates that the axial chirality and the chiral sp(3) center at the alcohol of the Ar-BINMOLs are the pivotal enantioselectivity-controlling structure elements. In addition, this study demonstrated the importance of the chiral sp(3) center at the alcohol on Ar-BINMOL for the aryl transfer reaction. Finally, we found that the chiral Ar-BINMOL ligand 2h mediated the titanium-promoted 1,2-addition of MeMgBr to aldehydes to give the desired products in good yields with excellent enantioselectivities (up to 92% ee).