Organocatalytic Atroposelective Construction of Axially Chiral N-Aryl Benzimidazoles Involving Carbon-Carbon Bond Cleavage

Org Lett. 2020 Aug 21;22(16):6382-6387. doi: 10.1021/acs.orglett.0c02214. Epub 2020 Aug 5.

Abstract

Axially chiral compounds widely occur in natural products, biologically active molecules, ligands, and catalysts, and their efficient and enantioselective synthesis is highly desirable. Herein, we report a novel method for the atroposelective construction of axially chiral N-aryl benzimidazoles with chiral phosphoric acid as the organocatalyst via reaction of N1-(aryl)benzene-1,2-diamines with multicarbonyl compounds. The present method provided the target products in high yields (up to 89%) with excellent enantioselectivity (up to 98% ee).