Palladium/Xu-Phos-catalyzed enantioselective arylalkoxylation reaction of γ-hydroxyalkenes at room temperature

Metal-catalyzed alkene arylalkoxylation is a powerful complexity-building strategy for the synthesis of oxygen heterocycles from simple γ-unsaturated alcohols, but only a few examples of catalytic enantioselective methods exist. Herein, an efficient palladium-catalyzed enantioselective arylalkoxylation of γ-hydroxyalkenes with aryl halides is reported. The salient features of this transformation include a remarkable broad substrate scope, mild reaction conditions, and good functional group tolerance, delivering a series of chiral tetrahydrofurans containing a tertiary or quaternary stereocenter in good yields with up to 95 % ee. The Xu10 ligand with a suitable side-arm was responsible for the high reactivity and good enantioselectivity of this transformation.