Highly efficient asymmetric aldol reaction in brine using a fluorous sulfonamide organocatalyst.

A fluorous organocatalyst promotes direct asymmetric aldol reactions of aromatic aldehydes with ketones in brine to afford the corresponding anti-aldol products in high yield with up to 96% ee. Fluorous organocatalyst can be readily recovered by solid phase extraction using fluorous silica gel and reused without purification.

Direct asymmetric aldol reaction with recyclable fluorous organocatalyst.

Direct asymmetric aldol reactions of aldehydes with ketones in the presence of a catalytic amount of fluorous sulfonamide 4 and trifluoroacetic acid result in the corresponding aldol products in high yields with up to 96% ee. The fluorous organocatalyst 4 can be readily recovered from the reaction mixture by fluorous solid-phase extraction and could be reused without a significant loss of the catalytic activity and enantioselectivity.