Palladium-Catalyzed Regio- and Enantioselective Hydrosulfonylation of 1,3-Dienes with Sulfinic Acids: Scope, Mechanism, and Origin of Selectivity

Chiral sulfones are important structural motifs in organic synthesis because of their widespread use in pharmaceutical chemistry. In particular, chiral allylic sulfones have drawn particular interest because of their synthetic utility. However, enantioselective synthesis of 1,3-disubstituted unsymmetrical chiral allylic sulfones remains a challenge. In this article, we report a protocol for (R)-DTBM-Segphos/Pd-catalyzed regio- and enantioselective hydrosulfonylation of 1,3-dienes with sulfinic acids, which provides atom- and step-economical access to 1,3-disubstituted chiral allylic sulfones. The reaction occurs under mild conditions and has a broad substrate scope. Combined experimental and computational studies suggest that the reaction is initiated by a ligand-to-ligand hydrogen transfer followed by a C-S bond reductive elimination via a six-membered transition state. Steric repulsion between the olefinic C-H of the substrate and the tert-butyl group of (R)-DTBM-Segphos was found to be a key factor in the enantiocontrol.