Gold-catalyzed construction of two adjacent quaternary stereocenters via sequential C-H functionalization and aldol annulation

Herein, a novel and efficient gold-catalyzed intermolecular C(sp²)-H functionalization (Friedel-Crafts alkylation) and aldol annulation strategy is presented. This cascade process allows the synthesis of a series of indanol and tetrahydronaphthalenol derivatives with two adjacent quaternary stereocenters. The attractive reaction features are the use of readily available starting materials, good diastereoselectivity, good functional-group tolerance and mild reaction conditions. Furthermore, preliminary results indicate that this transformation is amenable to enantioselectivitive synthesis with further chiral ligand screening and design.