Stereoselective Ketone Rearrangements with Hypervalent Iodine Reagents.

The first stereoselective version of an iodine(III)-mediated rearrangement of arylketones in the presence of orthoesters is described. The reaction products, α-arylated esters, are very useful intermediates in the synthesis of bioactive compounds such as ibuprofen. With chiral lactic acid-based iodine(III) reagents product selectivities of up to 73 % ee have been achieved.

Enantioselective diamination with novel chiral hypervalent iodine catalysts.

Vicinal diamines constitute one the most important functional motif in organic chemistry because of its wide occurrence in a variety of biological and pharmaceutical molecules. We report an efficient metal-free, highly stereoselective intramolecular diamination using a novel chiral hypervalent iodine reagent together with its application as an efficient catalyst for the synthesis of diamines.