Mechanism and Origins of Enantioselectivity in the Nickel-catalyzed Asymmetric Synthesis of Silicon-Stereogenic Benzosiloles

As important π-skeletons, benzosiloles often possess unique electronic and optical properties and have been widely used in semiconductor materials. Therefore, great attention has been drawn to the area of developing novel synthetic methods for various benzosiloles. However, the synthesis of enantioenriched silicon-stereogenic benzosiloles is still at an early stage and remains to be explored. Herein, we performed systematic density functional theory studies on the recently reported nickel-catalyzed asymmetric synthesis of silicon-stereogenic benosiloles, which was enabled by an enantioselective desymmetrization of (2-alkenyl)aryl-substituted silacyclobutanes. Our computational study shows that the reaction mechanism involves ligand exchange, oxidative addition, alkene insertion, and hydrogen-transfer coupled reductive-demetalation steps. The proposed transmetalation and β-hydride elimination mechanism was not found, which might be due to the unfavorable ring strain of the multicyclic intermediates. The novel hydrogen-transfer coupled reductive-demetalation mechanism was shown to be reasonable for the generation of the silicon-stereogenic benzosilole. Noncovalent interactions (including C–H···π and hydrogen bonding) in the rate-determining alkene insertion transition state account for the origins of the enantioselectivity. Our computational study sheds light on the detailed reaction mechanism and also provides insights for the development of novel approaches for synthesis of high-value silicon-stereogenic compounds.