Base-Free Conditions for Rhodium-Catalyzed Asymmetric Arylation To Produce Stereochemically Labile α-Aryl Ketones.

The asymmetric arylation of 2,2-dialkyl cyclopent-4-ene-1,3-diones with aryl boronic acids was found to be efficiently catalyzed by a chiral diene-rhodium µ-chloro dimer, [{RhCl((R)-diene*)}2 ], in the absence of bases in toluene/H2 O to give 2,2-dialkyl 4-aryl cyclopentane-1,3-diones in high yields with high enantioselectivity. Such compounds can not be obtained with high enantiomeric purity under the standard basic conditions used for rhodium-catalyzed asymmetric arylation because the α-aryl ketone products undergo racemization under the basic conditions.