Ketene, acylating reactions properties

In 1993, Vedejs et al. [5,6] showed that tributylphosphine is a potent catalyst for the acylation of alcohols by acetic and benzoic anhydrides as efficient as 4-(di-methylamino)pyridine DMAP [7,8]. However, the DMAP catalyst is more versatile since it presents catalytic activity in the reaction of alcohols with a larger variety of electrophiles. Due to these properties, Fu [9] realized the design and synthesis of a new family of chiral nucleophilic catalysts illustrated by the planar-chiral DMAP derivative I which is a very efficient catalyst in different enantioselective reactions such as addition of alcohols to ketenes [10], rearrangement of O-acylated azalactones [11], and kinetic resolution of secondary alcohols [12-14]. 

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