Professor Hailong Yan's team makes important progress in the construction of helical chiral compounds based on a co-enolone intermediate

In October 2019, Professor Hailong Yan's group at the School of Pharmaceutical Science of Chongqing University published a paper entitled "Enantioselective Control of Both Helical and Axial Stereogenic Elements through an Organocatalytic Approach".

    Spiroenes, commonly referred to as carbenes, are different from planar polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in that they are helical π skeletons formed by multiple aromatic rings thickened through neighbourhoods. Their twisted π-surface, unique kinetic properties, inherent chirality and good solubility have led to their use in a wide range of disciplines. Efficient construction of chiral complex molecules, especially those containing spiroalkenes and different types of stereogenic elements, has received increasing attention. Recently, Professor Hailong Yan's group has achieved an efficient asymmetric synthesis of six-membered spiroene chiral compounds containing biaxial spiroenes by using a linkerene quinone intermediate to undergo an intramolecular nucleophilic cyclisation reaction.

Link to the paper: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/ange.201909214

DOI: 10.1002/anie.201909214.