Palladium/zinc co-catalyzed asymmetric transfer hydrogenation of oxabenzonorbornadienes with alcohols as hydrogen sourcesElectronic supplementary information (ESI) available: Experimental procedures, product characterization, copies of HPLC, 1H and 13C NMR spectra. CCDC 1508992 and 1526719. For ESI and crystallographic data in CIF or other electronic format see DOI: 10.1039/c7ob00175d

Asymmetric transfer hydrogenation of oxabenzonorbornadienes was realized by using alcohols as hydrogen sources under a co-catalytic system of palladium and zinc. Both primary and secondary alcohols could serve as reductants and afforded enantiomerically enriched 1,2-dihydronaphth-1-ol products with high optical purities. Asymmetric transfer hydrogenation of oxabenzonorbornadienes was realized by using alcohols as hydrogen sources under a co-catalytic system of palladium and zinc.