Synthesis of Alkene Atropisomers with Multiple Stereogenic Elements via Catalytic Asymmetric Rearrangement of...

Catalytic enantioselective preparation of alkene atropisomers with multiple stereogenic elements and discovery of their applications have become significant but challenging issues in the scientific community due to the unique structures of this class of atropisomers. We herein report the first catalytic atroposelective preparation of cyclopentenyl[b]indoles, a new kind of alkene atropisomers, with stereogenic point and axial chirality via an unusual rearrangement reaction of 3-indolylmethanols under asymmetric organocatalysis. Notably, this novel type of alkene atropisomers have promising applications in developing chiral ligands or organocatalysts, discovering antitumor drug candidates and fluorescence imaging materials. Moreover, the theoretical calculations have elucidated the possible reaction mechanism and the non-covalent interactions to control the enantioselectivity. This approach offers a new synthetic strategy for alkene atropisomers with multiple stereogenic elements, and represents the first catalytic enantioselective rearrangement reaction of 3-indolylmethanols, which will advance the chemistry of atropisomers and chiral indole chemistry.