Steps toward Rationalization of the Enantiomeric Excess of the Sakurai-Hosomi-Denmark Allylation Catalyzed by Biisoquinoline N,N'-Dioxides Using Computations.

Allylation reactions of aldehydes are chemical transformations of fundamental interest, as they give direct access to chiral homoallylic alcohols. In this work, we focus on the full computational characterization of the catalytic activity of substituted biisoquinoline-N,N'-dioxides for the allylation of 2-naphthaldehyde. We characterized the structure of all transition states as well as identified the π stacking interactions that are responsible for their relative energies.