UC Berkeley

Although much effort has been spent on the enantioselective synthesis of tertiary alkyl fluorides, the synthesis of compounds containing such a stereogenic center within an array of stereocenters, particularly two vicinal ones, remains a synthetic challenge, and no method to control the configuration of each stereogenic center independently has been reported. We describe a strategy to achieve such a stereodivergent synthesis of vicinal stereogenic centers, one containing a fluorine atom, by forming the connecting carbon-carbon bond with a catalyst system comprising an iridium complex that controls the configuration at the electrophilic carbon and a copper catalyst that controls the configuration at the nucleophilic fluorine-containing carbon. These reactions occur with alkyl- and aryl-substituted allylic esters and the unstabilized enolates of azaaryl ketones, esters, and amides in high yield, diastereoselectivity, and enantioselectivity (generally >90% yield, >20:1 dr, 97-99% ee). Access to all four stereoisomers of products demonstrates the precise control of the two configurations independently. This methodology extends to the stereodivergent construction of vicinal quaternary and tertiary stereocenters in similarly high yield and selectivity. DFT calculations uncover the origin of stereoselectivity of copper enolate in allylic substitution.