Truncated Cinchona alkaloids as catalysts in enantioselective monobenzoylation of meso-1,2-diols.

Readily synthesised quincorine and quincoridine derived chiral diamines efficiently catalyse the asymmetric monobenzoylation of cyclic and acyclic meso-1,2-diols.

Acrylate-Assisted Arene-Chromium Bond Cleavage: Generation of a [Cr(CO)2 ] Fragment under Mild Conditions.

Displacement of the benzene ligand in 1 surprisingly occurs more readily than that of the methyl acrylate ligand. This paves the way for 1 to undergo arene exchange and arene substitution reactions, which may be triggered by a η2 →η4 haptotropic rearrangement of the acrylate. Complex 1 is thus a mild precursor of the highly unsaturated fragments [Cr(CO)2 ] (see scheme) and [Cr(CO)2 (η2 -acrylate)].