Construction of boron-stereogenic compounds via enantioselective Cu-catalyzed desymmetric B–H bond insertion reaction

Compared with the well-developed carbon-stereogenic chemistry, the construction of boron-stereogenic compounds remains undeveloped and challenging. Herein, the previously elusive catalytic enantioselective construction of boron-stereogenic compounds has been achieved through enantioselective desymmetric B–H bond insertion reaction. The B–H bond insertion reaction of 2-arylpyridine-boranes with versatile diazo compounds under chiral copper catalyst can afford boron-stereogenic compounds with good to excellent enantioselectivity. Moreover, the synthetic utility of this reaction is demonstrated by the scalability and downstream transformations. DFT calculations provide insights into the reaction mechanism and the origin of stereoselectivity. Enantioselective catalytic methods for the construction of boron-stereogenic compounds are elusive. In this article, the authors describe a route to these compounds via a copper-catalysed desymmetric B-H insertion on 2-arylpyridine-boranes with carbenes.