Rational Design of Chiral Selenium-π-Acid Catalysts

A series of unprecedented chiral selenium-π-acid catalysts for the asymmetric, oxidative functionalization of alkenes has been developed. In total, eleven different chiral dihydrodiselenocine and (di-)alkoxyphenyl (di)selenide motifs have been synthesized in a concise, modal, and straightforward fashion. Commercially available, non-racemic alcohols have been predominantly used as chiral building blocks for the facile assembly of the selenium-π-acid catalysts. These species have been exemplarily applied to the enantioselective intermolecular imidation and intramolecular acyloxylation of two olefins using N-fluorobenzenesulfonimide (NFSI) and ambient air, respectively, as terminal oxidants. In part, the catalysts provide very good yields of up to 99% and enantiomeric ratios of up to 83.5:16.5 under aerobic conditions.