Regio- and enantiocontrol in the room-temperature hydroboration of vinyl arenes with pinacol borane

The catalyzed hydroboration of vinyl arenes was carried out using pinacol borane instead of catechol borane, as the former reagent and the product boronates are significantly easier to handle. By careful choice of catalyst, either the branched or the linear product can be obtained in greater than 96% selectivity. Interestingly, common ligands such as BINAP and Josiphos give opposite asymmetric induction with pinacol borane as compared with catechol borane, while P,N-ligands such as Quinap gave the same sense of induction. The hydroboration of 6-methoxynaphthalene proceeded with the greatest regio- (95:5) and enantioselectivity (94:6) of all vinyl arenes examined. The hydroboration product was then employed in a concise synthesis of the nonsteroidal antiinflammatory agent, Naproxen.