Catalytic enantioselective addition of diethylzinc to trifluoromethyl ketones

A procedure for nucleophilic addition of diethylzinc to trifluoromethyl ketones was developed. The TMEDA-catalyzed method converts aromatic substrates to the corresponding 2-aryl-1,1,1-trifluorobutan-2-ols in up to 99% yield, and it is also applicable to less reactive aliphatic ketones if stoichiometric ligand amounts are employed. The first asymmetric variant producing tertiary alcohols with up to 61% ee when TBOX is used as catalyst is described.