Developing Chiral Dibenzazepine-Based S(O)-Alkene Hybrid Ligands for Rh(I) Complexation: Catalysts for the Base-Free Hayashi–Miyaura Reaction

A stereodivergent synthesis using inexpensive reagents, i.e., dibenzazepine and glucose-derived t-Bu-sulfinate diastereomers (RS)-6 or (SS)-6, affords respective S(O)-alkene hybrid ligands (S)-7 and (R)-7 on gram scales and in excellent optical purity (ee > 99%). Phenyl substitution of the dibenzoazepine backbone generates planar chirality to give epimerization-resistant (pS,RS)-10 diastereoisomer in high isomeric purity. Furthermore, the crystal structure of widely used sulfinate (RS)-6 is disclosed for the first time since its discovery a quarter of a century ago. Ligands 7 and 10 coordinate Rh(I) in a bidentate fashion through the S atoms and the alkene functions as evidenced by the crystal structures of complexes (R)-11 and (SN,SS)-12. (R)-11 catalyzes the conjugate addition of arylboronic acids to enones with enantioselectivities of up to 77% ee. The reaction proceeds smoothly also under base-free conditions at 40 °C. The planar chirality in ligand (pS,RS)-10 is shown to override and invert the sense...