Palladium/TY-Phos-Catalyzed Asymmetric Intermolecular α-Arylation of Aldehydes with Aryl Bromides

Despite much progress has been made in the asymmetric α-arylation reactions of cyclic ketones, lactones and lactams, the enantioselective α-arylation of acyclic carbonyl compounds lagged much behind due to the in situ generated Z/E-enolate intermediates leading to opposite enantiomers. Especially, the asymmetric α-arylation of acyclic aldehydes is a long-standing challenge, because of the highest activity among carbonyl compounds leading to various competitive side reactions. Herein we reported an efficient Pd-catalyzed asymmetric intermolecular α-arylation reaction of α-alkyl-α-aryl disubstituted aldehydes with aryl bromides, which provides a rapid access to chiral aldehydes bearing an α-all-carbon quaternary stereocenter in moderate to good yields with good er in most cases. In addition, a pair of enantiomers could be easily prepared with the use of the same ligand by exchanging the aryl groups of aldehyde and aryl bromide.