Palladium/N-CD3-Xu-Phos-catalyzed enantioselective cascade Heck/remote C(sp2)−H alkylation reaction

Abstract

Heck-type C-H bond activation of unactivated alkenes has emerged as a powerful strategy for the construction of synthetically valuable spirocycles over past 30 years, however, the development of asymmetric version has lagged largely behind. Herein we demonstrate a robust Heck-type reaction of a broad range of unactivated alkenes enabled by the first palladium/Xu-Phos-catalyzed tandem Heck/remote C−H bond alkylation. Moreover, the synthesis of both enantiomers of the product using the same enantiomer of a chiral ligand via a position of the phenyl ring-dependent enantiodivergent synthesis. The salient features of this methodology include operational simplicity, high chemo- and enantioselectivity, broad substrate scope. In addition, we first revealed that the C(sp2)-H activation, alkene insertion and C−I reductive elimination steps are reversible by experiments.