Enantioselective Synthesis of Planar Chiral Arene Chromium Complexes

Significance

The known methods to synthesize planar chiral tricarbonyl(arene)chromium complexes leave some room for improvement with respect to yields and stereoselectivity. In this paper, the authors report a highly enantioselective (up to 99% ee) approach towards this compounds via gold(I)-catalyzed intramolecular hydroalkoxylation of aryl alkynes bound to the Cr(CO)₃ moiety. The tricarbonylchromium moiety was shown to increase the enantioselectivity compared to the uncomplexed arene.