Enantioselective Iridium-Catalyzed Hydrogenation of β,γ-Unsaturated Carboxylic Acids: An Efficient Approach to Chiral 4-Alkyl-4-aryl Butanoic Acids

摘要

Chiral acids are important intermediates for the construction of biologically active compounds. In particular, optically active 4-alkyl-4-aryl butanoic acids 1 and their derivatives have been widely used in the synthesis of various natural products that have stereogenic centers in the benzylic position (Scheme 1). Although many catalytic enantioselective approaches have been developed for the synthesis of diverse chiral compounds, there is, to the best of our knowledge, no direct method for asymmetric preparation of 4-alkyl-4-aryl butanoic acids 1.