Atropo-enantioselective reduction of configurationally unstable biaryl lactones with BINAL-H

The atropo-enantioselective reduction of configurationally unstable biaryl lactones with BINAL-H yields axially chiral biaryl alcohols in high enantiomeric ratios of up to 94:6 (er >99.5:0.5 after one crystallization step). Within this two-step reduction process the stereochemically deciding step is the first attack on the lactones and not the reduction of the likewise configurationally unstable biaryl lactol/hydroxy aldehyde intermediates, as evident from the non-stereoselective reduction of the latter under the same conditions.