Iridium-catalyzed regio- and enantioselective allylation of ketone enolates

The regio- and enantioselective alpha-allylation of unstabilized ketone enolates with unsymmetrical allylic carbonates to form the branched substitution products in the presence of metallacyclic iridium catalysts is reported. The products, branched gamma,delta-unsaturated ketones, were obtained from readily available silyl enol ethers and achiral Boc-protected allylic alcohols in high regioselectivities and enantioselectivities (91-96% ee). The combination of CsF and ZnF2 was shown to promote this reaction and suppress the formation of diallylation byproducts. In addition, iridium complexes derived from simple phosphoramidite ligands were shown to catalyze this reaction with excellent selectivities, and spectroscopic data show that a cyclometalated Ir precatalyst is formed in situ. This process provides an enantioselective access to synthetically important bifunctional compounds, which are generally accessible, but in racemic form, through Claisen rearrangements. Ten examples of the reactions of aromatic, as well as aliphatic, substrates are reported.