Aldol and Carbonyl Ene Reactions

A screening of various BINOL structures showed that substitution at the 6-position has a positive influence in the enantioselectivity, and 6,6 -dibromo derivative was the best ligand, affording up to 97% enantiomeric excess for the aldol product. On the other hand, a substitution at the 3,3 -position has a negative effect. 

Mechanistically related to the Mukaiyama aldol reaction, the carbonyl ene reaction is the reaction between an alkene bearing an allylic hydrogen and a carbonyl compound, to afford homoallylic alcohols. This reaction is potentially 100% atom efficient, and should be a valuable alternative to the addition of organometallic species to carbonyl substrates. However, the carbonyl ene reaction is of limited substrate scope and works generally well in an intermolecular manner only with activated substrates, typically 1,1-disubstituted alkenes and electron-deficient aldehydes (glyoxylate esters, fluoral, a,p-unsaturated aldehydes, etc.), in the presence of Lewis acids. The first use of chiral catalyst for asymmetric carbonyl ene was presented by Mikami et al. in 1989. ° By using a catalytic amount of titanium complexes prepared in situ from a 1 1 ratio of (rPrO)2titaniumX2 (X = Cl or Br) and optically pure BINOL, the homoallylic alcohols 70a,b were obtained in 

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