Construction of All‐Carbon Quaternary Stereocenters via Asymmetric Cyclopropanations: Synthesis of Chiral Carbocyclic Pyrimidine Nucleosides

Abstract An efficient route to synthesize chiral carbocyclic pyrimidine nucleoside analogues containing all‐carbon quaternary stereocenters has been established via the asymmetric intermolecular cyclopropanation of N1‐vinylpyrimidines and α‐aryl diazoesters. With 2 mol% of chiral dirhodium (II) carboxylate complex as the catalyst, a variety of chiral carbocyclic cytosine or uracil nucleoside analogues were obtained in good yields (up to 96% yield), high diastereoselectivities (>20:1 dr), and excellent enantioselectivities (up to 99% ee ). magnified image