Synthesis of Large Macrocycles with Chiral Sulfur Centers via Enantiospecific SuFEx and SuPhenEx Click Reactions

Here we report the first asymmetric synthesis of large chiral macrocycles with chiral sulfur atoms. Building on stereospecific SuFEx and SuPhenEx click chemistries, this approach utilizes disulfonimidoyl fluorides and disulfonimidoyl p-nitrophenolates─which are efficient building blocks with two chiral sulfur centers, and diphenols to efficiently form novel S–O bonds. Characteristic results include the enantiospecific one-step synthesis of rings consisting of 21–58 members and characterization of both enantiomers (R,R and S,S) by e.g. X-ray crystallography.