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Free keywords:
boron; diols; pinacol rearrangement; silanes; stereoselectivity
Abstract:
A catalytic pinacol-type reductive rearrangement reaction of internal 1,2-diols is reported herein. Several scaffolds not usually amenable to pinacol-type reactions, such as aliphatic secondary–secondary diols, undergo the transformation well without the need for prefunctionalization. The reaction uses a simple boron catalyst and two silanes and proceeds through a concerted, stereoinvertive mechanism that enables the preparation of highly enantiomerically enriched products. Computational studies have been used to rationalize the preference for migration over direct deoxygenation.