Synergistic interplay of a non-heme iron catalyst and amino acid coligands in H2O2 activation for asymmetric epoxidation of α-alkyl-substituted styrenes

Article abstract of DOI:10.1002/anie.201410557

Highly enantioselective epoxidation of α-substituted styrenes with aqueous H₂O₂ is described by using a chiral iron complex as the catalyst and N-protected amino acids (AAs) as coligands. The amino acids synergistically cooperate with the iron center in promoting an efficient activation of H₂O₂ to catalyze epoxidation of this challenging class of substrates with good yields and stereoselectivities (up to 97% ee) in short reaction times.