Practical and Broadly Applicable Catalytic Enantioselective Additions of Allyl-B(pin) Compounds to Ketones and α-Ketoesters

A set of broadly applicable methods for efficient catalytic additions of easy-to-handle allyl-B(pin) (pin=pinacolato) compounds to ketones and acyclic alpha-ketoesters was developed. Accordingly, a large array of tertiary alcohols can be obtained in 60 to > 98% yield and up to 99:1 enantiomeric ratio. At the heart of this development is rational alteration of the structures of the small-molecule aminophenol-based catalysts. Notably, with ketones, increasing the size of a catalyst moiety (tBu to SiPh3) results in much higher enantioselectivity. With alpha-ketoesters, on the other hand, not only does the opposite hold true, since Me substitution leads to substantially higher enantioselectivity, but the sense of the selectivity is reversed as well.