Front Cover: Nickel-Catalyzed Construction of Chiral 1-[6]Helicenols and Application in the Synthesis of [6]Helicene-Based Phosphinite Ligands (Eur. J. Org. Chem. 29/2016)

The cover picture shows “Wanko Soba” (Iwate, Japan), an interesting dish of soba (buckwheat noodles). Each time that you take a mouthful of soba from a small dish, the maid refills it. The scheme illustrates the Ni‐catalyzed construction of chiral 1‐functionalized [6]helicene derivatives on a multigram scale as a result of the stepwise study for scale up. This 10 g scale synthesis of helicene derivatives by [2+2+2] cycloaddition is the largest scale in this field. The enantiomerically pure 1‐[6]helicenols can be synthesized through an efficient optical resolution process via the corresponding camphanates. Furthermore, the development of a novel class of [6]helicene‐based phosphinites and their preliminary investigation as asymmetric ligands are also described. Details are discussed in the Communication by T. Tsujihara, T. Kawano et al. on p. 4948 ff.