Ferrocene-based bifunctional organocatalyst for highly enantioselective intramolecular Rauhut-Currier reaction

Three series of novel ferrocene-based bifunctional chiral phosphines have been designed and synthesized. Thethiourea-phosphine A7 showed good performance in enantioselective intramolecular Rauhut Currier reaction of bis(enones), giving the corresponding products in good yield with up to 98% ee. Moreover, with amino acid derived amide-phosphine B3, optically active a-methylene-8-valerolactone was obtained in 88% yield and > 99.9% ee utilizing the enantioselective intramolecular Rauhut-Currier reaction of chalcone derivative.