Organoselenium-Catalyzed Asymmetric Cyclopropanations of (E)-Chalcones

We report a new class of chiral tetrahydroselenophene based on (S)-diphenyl(tetrahydroselenophen-2-yl)methanol, which was prepared from (R)-3-(3-bromopropyl)-2,2-diphenyloxirane and sodium selenide. These chiral tetrahydroselenophene-based compounds were used to catalyze asymmetric cyclopropanation reactions; the selenonium ylide intermediates formed from these selenium-containing catalysts and benzyl bromide efficiently react with (E)-chalcones to give various cyclopropanes (27 examples) with excellent enantioselectivities of ≤99% ee and are the first examples of organoselenium-catalyzed asymmetric cyclopropanations.