A relay catalysis strategy for enantioselective nickel-catalyzed migratory hydroarylation forming chiral α-aryl alkylboronates

Ligand-controlled reactivity plays an important role in transition-metal catalysis, enabling a vast number of efficient transformations to be discovered and developed. However, a single ligand is generally used to promote all steps of the catalytic cycle (e.g., oxidative addition, reductive elimination), a requirement that makes ligand design challenging and limits its generality, especially in relay asymmetric transformations. We hypothesized that multiple ligands with a metal center might be used to sequentially promote multiple catalytic steps, thereby combining complementary catalytic reactivities through a simple combination of simple ligands. With this relay catalysis strategy (L/L∗), we report here the first highly regio- and enantioselective remote hydroarylation process. By synergistic combination of a known chain-walking ligand and a simple asymmetric cross-coupling ligand with the nickel catalyst, enantioenriched α-aryl alkylboronates could be rapidly obtained as versatile synthetic intermediates through this formal asymmetric remote C(sp3)-H arylation process.