Oxahelicene NHC ligands in the asymmetric synthesis of nonracemic helicenes

Chem Commun (Camb). 2017 Apr 21;53(31):4370-4373. doi: 10.1039/c7cc00781g. Epub 2017 Apr 5.

Abstract

A straightforward approach to enantiopure 2H-pyran-modified amino[5]helicenes and amino[6]helicenes was developed. They were converted to 1,3-disubstituted imidazolium salts and used as NHC ligand precursors in the Ni0-catalysed enantioselective [2+2+2] cycloisomerisation of aromatic triynes to obtain the model helicene derivatives in up to 86% ee.