Chiral benzene backbone-based sulfoxide-olefin ligands for highly enantioselective Rh-catalyzed addition of arylboronic acids to N-tosylarylimines

An efficient Rh-catalyzed addition of arylboronic acids to N-tosylarylimines has been developed with chiral benzene backbone-based sulfoxide-olefin ligands, where 2-methoxy-1-naphthyl sulfinyl functionalized olefin ligands have shown to be more effective. The versatile method tolerates a wide range of functional groups and shows broad scope without regard to electronic or steric substitution pattern, allowing access to a broad range of chiral diarylmethylamines in high yields (up to 99%) with excellent enantioselectivities (up to 99% ee).