An unconventional associated outersphere mechanism for chiral sulfoxide synthesis

Sulfoxides are widely used as key functional groups in drug molecules and chiral ligands. However, due to the transition-metal poisoning effect and instability of sulfenic acid starting materials, the asymmetric construction of the S–C bond via transition metals remains limited. This work from our group reports an enantioselective allylic substitution reaction of in situ-generated sulfenates with allenyl esters to synthesize dienyl sulfoxides with high regio- and enantioselectivity.