Cage-Shaped Borate Esters with Enhanced Lewis Acidity and Catalytic Activity

[structure: see text] A cage shape causes high Lewis acidity and catalytic activity on boron. Borate esters that have cage-shaped ligands have accessible LUMO with lower eigenvalues than normal open-shaped borate esters. A large dihedral angle at C-O-B-O in cage-shaped borate esters induces less overlap between p-orbitals on O and B. The hetero-Diels-Alder reaction is effectively catalyzed by the cage-shaped borate, although the open-shaped borate does not act as a catalyst.