Atropoenantioselective palladaelectro-catalyzed anilide C-H olefinations viable with natural sunlight as sustainable power source

Chem Sci. 2022 Feb 10;13(9):2729-2734. doi: 10.1039/d1sc06135f. eCollection 2022 Mar 2.

Abstract

Enantioselective electrocatalyzed transformations represent a major challenge. We herein achieved atropoenantioselective pallada-electrocatalyzed C-H olefinations and C-H allylations with high efficacy and enantioselectivity under exceedingly mild reaction conditions. With (S)-5-oxoproline as the chiral ligand, activated and non-activated olefins were suitable substrates for the electro-C-H activations. Dual catalysis was devised in terms of electro-C-H olefination, along with catalytic hydrogenation. Challenging enantiomerically-enriched chiral anilide scaffolds were thereby obtained with high levels of enantio-control in the absence of toxic and cost-intensive silver salts. The resource-economy of the transformation was even improved by directly employing renewable solar energy.