Gold Meets Rhodium: Tandem One-Pot Synthesis of β-Disubstituted Ketones via Meyer–Schuster Rearrangement and Asymmetric 1,4-Addition

An asymmetric one-pot tandem Au/Rh-catalyzed synthesis of highly enantioenriched β-disubstituted ketones starting from racemic propargyl alcohols is disclosed. The compatibility of the two metal complexes (Au/Rh) and their orthogonal ligand systems (NHC/diene) in this bimetallic catalytic system is investigated.