Chiral cobalt(ii) complex-promoted asymmetric -Claisen rearrangement of allyl α-naphthol ethers.

Due to experiencing a challenging dearomatization process, the aromatic sigmatropic rearrangement of allyl naphthyl ethers is a difficult yet efficient method to build useful naphthalenone skeletons. Here, we report a -Claisen rearrangement-based asymmetric dearomatization of allyl α-naphthol ethers enabled by a ,'-dioxide/Co complex. A variety of naphthalenones were obtained in moderate to good yields with good to excellent ee values.