Double Catalytic Kinetic Resolution (DoCKR) of Acyclic anti‐1,3‐Diols: The Additive Horeau Amplification

The concept of a synergistic double catalytic kinetic resolution (DoCKR) as described in this article was successfully applied to racemic acyclic anti ‐1,3‐diols, a common motif in natural products. This process takes advantage of an additive Horeau amplification involving two successive enantioselective organocatalytic acylation reactions, and leads to diesters and recovered diols with high enantiopurities. It was first developed with C ₂‐symmetrical diols and then further extended to non‐C ₂‐symmetrical anti diols to prepare useful chiral building blocks. The protocol is highly practical as it only requires 1 mol % of a commercially available organocatalyst and leads to easily separable products. This procedure was applied to the shortest reported total synthesis of (+)‐cryptocaryalactone, a natural product with anti‐germinative activity.     

Synthesis of Axially Chiral Biaryls through Sulfoxide‐Directed Asymmetric Mild C?H Activation and Dynamic Kinetic Resolution

A mild and robust direct C H functionalization strategy has been applied to the synthesis of axially chiral biaryls. Such an efficient and stereoselective transformation occurs through an original dynamic kinetic resolution pathway enabling the conversion of diastereomeric mixtures of non‐prefunctionalized substrates into atropisomerically pure, highly substituted biaryl scaffolds. The main feature of this transformation is the use of an enantiopure sulfoxide as both chiral auxiliary and traceless directing group. The potential of newly synthesized biaryls as valuable building blocks is further illustrated.