Catalytic Enantioselective Primary C-H Borylation for Acyclic All-carbon Quaternary Stereocenters

Abstract Creating a perfect catalyst to operate enzyme-like chiral recognition is a long-sought aim. A challenging example in this context is constructing acyclic all-carbon quaternary stereogenic centers by transition-metal catalyzed enantioselective C-H activation. We now report highly enantioselective iridium-catalyzed primary C-H borylation of α-all-carbon substituted 2,2-dimethyl amides enabled by a tailor-made chiral bidentate boryl ligand (CBL). The success of the current transformation attributes to CBL/iridium catalyst with a confined chiral pocket. This protocol provides a diverse array of acyclic all-carbon quaternary stereocenters with excellent enantiocontrol and distinct structural features. Computational study reveals that steric hindrance of CBL could regulate the type of dominant orbital interaction between the catalyst and the substrate, which is crucial to conferring high chiral induction.