Facile access to optically active ferrocenyl derivatives with direct substitution of the hydroxy group catalyzed by indium tribromide

Ferrocene derivatives have found many different uses and applications in organometallic chemistry, material chemistry, and catalysis. We have shown that using a catalytic amount (5-10 mol-%) of commercially available indium tribromide, at room temperature, many carbon nucleophiles, such as indoles, allylsilane, enolsilane, silyl ketene acetal, diketone, and trimethylsilylcyanide, smoothly react with different optically active ferrocenyl alcohol derivatives to afford the desired products in high yield, with retention of configuration. Also, many different N-nucleophiles (azide, carbamates) and O-nucleophiles (alcohols) react as well, again with retention of configuration. ((C) Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, 69451 Weinheim, Germany, 2007).