Chromium(II)-catalyzed enantioselective arylation of ketones.

The chromium-catalyzed enantioselective addition of carbo halides to carbonyl compounds is an important transformation in organic synthesis. However, the corresponding catalytic enantioselective arylation of ketones has not been reported to date. Herein, we report the first Cr-catalyzed enantioselective addition of aryl halides to both arylaliphatic and aliphatic ketones with high enantioselectivity in an intramolecular version, providing facile access to enantiopure tetrahydronaphthalen-1-ols and 2,3-dihydro-1-inden-1-ols containing a tertiary alcohol.