Paper
Organic & Biomolecular Chemistry
sition state assembly would involve the thiourea moiety hydro-
gen bonding to the enone, with the enolate forming an ion
pair with the ammonium (Fig. 1, TS2†).11,19d,h Both pre-tran-
sition state assemblies would predict addition of the Re-face of
the (Z)-enolate to the Re-face of the enone to give the observed
(2R,3R)-configuration.20
P. T. Franke, L. T. Nielsen, K. Daasbjerg and
K. A. Jørgensen, Angew. Chem., Int. Ed., 2010, 49, 129;
(d) Ł. Albrecht, L. K. Ransborg, V. Lauridsen, M. Overgaard
and K. A. Jørgensen, Angew. Chem., Int. Ed., 2011, 50,
12496; (e) A. Lu, K. Hu, Y. Wang, H. Song, Z. Zhou, J. Fang
and C. Tang, J. Org. Chem., 2012, 77, 6208; (f) M. M. Calter
and N. Li, Org. Lett., 2011, 13, 3686; (g) C. Jarava-Barrera,
F. Esteban, C. Navarro-Ranninger, A. Parra and J. Alemán,
Chem. Commun., 2013, 49, 2001; (h) X.-X. Sun, H.-H. Zhang,
G.-H. Li, L. Meng and F. Shi, Chem. Commun., 2016, 52,
2968.
5 For selected recent examples see: (a) C. Simal, T. Lebl,
A. M. Z. Slawin and A. D. Smith, Angew. Chem., Int. Ed.,
2012, 51, 3653; (b) E. R. T. Robinson, C. Fallan, C. Simal,
A. M. Z. Slawin and A. D. Smith, Chem. Sci., 2013, 4, 2193;
(c) D. Belmessieri, D. B. Cordes, A. M. Z. Slawin and
A. D. Smith, Org. Lett., 2013, 15, 3472; (d) L. C. Morrill,
J. Douglas, T. Lebl, A. M. Z. Slawin, D. J. Fox and
A. D. Smith, Chem. Sci., 2013, 4, 4146; (e) S. R. Smith,
C. Fallan, J. E. Taylor, R. McLennan, D. S. B. Daniels,
L. C. Morrill, A. M. Z. Slawin and A. D. Smith, Chem. – Eur.
J., 2015, 21, 10530; (f) A. T. Davies, A. M. Z. Slawin and
A. D. Smith, Chem. – Eur. J., 2015, 21, 18944.
Conclusion
In conclusion, the catalytic enantioselective synthesis of trans-
2,3-disubstituted dihydrobenzofurans from readily-available
salicylic aldehyde derivatives has been achieved using a bifunc-
tional tertiary amine–thiourea catalyst 6. This method provided
a range of dihydrobenzofuran derivatives in high yield with
generally good to high diastereo- and enantiocontrol (up to
96 : 4 dr and 95 : 5 er). The generality of the method was high-
lighted by extension to the synthesis of disubstituted 2,3-
indane, and 3,4-tetrahydrofuran substructures. Ongoing work
in this laboratory is focused on further applications of organo-
catalysis for the asymmetric synthesis of biologically-active
compounds.
6 (a) D. Belmessieri, L. C. Morrill, C. Simal, A. M. Z. Slawin
and A. D. Smith, J. Am. Chem. Soc., 2011, 133, 2714;
(b) D. Belmessieri, A. de la Houpliere, E. D. D. Calder,
J. E. Taylor and A. D. Smith, Chem. – Eur. J., 2014, 20, 9762.
7 (a) J. Christensen, Ł. Albrecht and K. A. Jørgensen, Chem. –
Asian J., 2013, 8, 648; (b) Y. Liu, A. Lu, K. Hu, Y. Wang,
H. Song, Z. Zhou and C. Tang, Eur. J. Org. Chem., 2013, 4836.
8 (a) E. J. Corey and M. J. Grogan, Org. Lett., 1999, 1, 157;
(b) W. Ye, D. Leow, S. L. M. Goh, C.-T. Tan, C.-H. Chian and
C.-H. Tan, Tetrahedron Lett., 2006, 47, 1007.
Acknowledgements
The research leading to these results (D.-J. B. A.; C. F.) has
received funding from the ERC under the European Union’s
Seventh Framework Programme (FP7/2007–2013)/ERC grant
agreement no 279850. ADS thanks the Royal Society for a
Wolfson Research Merit Award. We also thank the EPSRC UK
National Mass Spectrometry Facility at Swansea University.
9 Z. Yu, X. Liu, L. Zhou, L. Lin and X. Feng, Angew. Chem.,
Int. Ed., 2009, 48, 5195.
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