HIGHLY ACTIVE RHODIUM CATALYST WITH ELECTRON-POOR DIPHOSPHINE ENABLES EFFICIENT SYNTHESIS OF CHIRAL 4-ARYL-delta-LACTONES

Chiral 4-aryl-delta-lactones could be synthesized efficiently with high enantioselectivity through asymmetric 1,4-addition of arylboronic acid to alpha,beta-unsaturated lactones using Rh catalyst including electron-poor diphosphine (MeO-F-12-BIPHEP) at room temperature for 1 h. In particular, our catalytic system proved to be applicable to relatively large coumarin analogues, giving optically pure 4-phenylchroman-2-one analogues in a short time.