A synthetic equivalent for unknown 1,3-zwitterions? - A K/OR phosphinidenoid complex with an additional Si-Cl function.

Although the chemistry of frustrated Lewis pairs (FLPs) has seen tremendous developments, investigations on anionic, mono-molecular FLPs are still scarce and 1,3-zwitterions are unknown. Herein, synthesis of a K/OR phosphinidenoid complex bearing a Si-Cl function is reported and, hence, can serve as a synthetic equivalent for a 1,3-zwitterion to allow access to rare and novel heterocyclic P-ligands.

Indanol-Based Chiral Organoiodine Catalysts for Enantioselective Hydrative Dearomatization.

Rapid development in the last decade has rendered chiral organoiodine(I/III) catalysis a reliable methodology in asymmetric catalysis. However, due to the severely limited numbers of effective organoiodine catalysts, many reactions still give low to modest enantioselectivity. We report herein a solution to this issue through the introduction of a pivotal indanol scaffold to the catalyst design. Our catalyst architecture exhibits the advantage of high modularity and thereby expedites catalyst optimization. The catalyst was optimized for the challenging and highly sought-after hydrative dearomatization of 2-substituted phenols at the 4-position.