The Development of Rhodium-Catalyzed Asymmetric Hydroformylation of 1-Alkenes to Access Chiral Aldehydes

Abstract

Asymmetric hydroformylation (AHF) is a metal-catalyzed reaction in which CO and H2 are added across an olefin to form a new carbon-carbon bond. AHF has perfect atom-economy and is an ideal way to form a chiral aldehyde. However, the utility of branch selective hydroformylation is limited due to a lack of readily available ligands and restrictions on a wide variety of terminal olefins. Herein, Rh-catalyzed asymmetric hydroformylation of 1-alkenes is reported using commercially available Ph-BPE ligand to generate α-chiral aldehydes. A wide range of terminal olefins were explored and all showed high enantioselectivity (up to 98:2 er) and good regioselectivity (up to 15:1 branched to linear ratio).