Enantioselective Photochemical Organocascade Catalysis

Reported herein is a photochemical cascade process that combines the excited-state and ground-state reactivity of chiral organocatalytic intermediates. This strategy directly converts racemic cyclopropanols and alpha,beta-unsaturated aldehydes into stereochemically dense cyclopentanols with exquisite stereoselectivity. Mechanistic investigations have enabled elucidating the origin of the stereoconvergence, which is governed by a kinetic resolution process.