A series of novel, efficient, air-stable, and tunable chiral bisdihydrobenzooxaphosphole ligands (BIBOPs) were developed for rhodium-catalyzed hydrogenations of various functionalized olefins such as alpha-arylenamides, alpha-(acylamino)acrylic acid derivatives, beta-(acylamino)acrylates, and dimethyl itaconate with excellent enantioselectivities (up to 99% ee) and reactivities (up to 2000 TON).

A general, efficient, and highly diastereoselective method for the synthesis of structurally and sterically diverse P-chiral phosphine oxides was developed. The method relies on sequential nucleophilic substitution on the versatile chiral phosphinyl transfer agent 1,3,2-benzoxazaphosphinine-2-oxide, which features enhanced and differentiated P-N and P-O bond reactivity toward nucleophiles. The reactivities of both bonds are fine-tuned to allow cleavage to occur even with sterically hindered nucleophiles under mild conditions.

Biaryl monophosphorus ligands containing a 2,3‐dihydrobenzo[d][1,3]oxaphosphole framework are highly effective for the palladium‐catalyzed Suzuki–Miyaura cross‐coupling reactions of a wide range of substrates. Ligand 1 has demonstrated excellent performance for coupling reactions of extremely hindered arylboronic acids.

Metal-catalyzed cross-coupling reactions are extensively employed in both academia and industry for the synthesis of biaryl derivatives for applications to both medicine and material science. Application of these methods to prepare tetra-ortho-substituted biaryls leads to chiral atropisomeric products that introduces the opportunity to use catalyst-control to develop asymmetric cross-coupling procedures to access these important compounds. Asymmetric Pd-catalyzed Suzuki-Miyaura and Negishi cross-coupling reactions to form tetra-ortho-substituted biaryls were studied employing a collection of P-chiral dihydrobenzooxaphosphole (BOP) and dihydrobenzoazaphosphole (BAP) ligands. Enantioselectivities of up to 95:5 and 85:15 er were identified for the Suzuki-Miyaura and Negishi cross-coupling reactions, respectively. Unique ligands for the Suzuki-Miyaura reaction vs the Negishi reaction were identified. A computational study on these Suzuki-Miyaura and Negishi cross-coupling reactions enabled an understanding in the differences between the enantiodiscriminating events between these two cross-coupling reactions. These results support that enantioselectivity in the Negishi reaction results from the reductive elimination step, whereas all steps in the Suzuki-Miyaura catalytic cycle contribute to the overall enantioselection with transmetalation and reductive elimination providing the most contribution to the observed selectivities.

[reaction: see text] A one-step method was developed for elaboration of a variety of polycyclic indole skeletons via a novel palladium-catalyzed intramolecular indolization of 2-chloroanilines bearing tethered acetylenes. This novel intramolecular indolization method unveils an unusual syn amidopalladation pathway of a tethered alkyne.

A series of efficient ruthenium catalysts has been developed for the asymmetric hydrogenation and transfer hydrogenation of ketones with high reactivities and selectivities. The new chiral bisdihydrobenzooxaphosphole (BIBOP)/diamineruthenium complexes catalyzed the enantioselective hydrogenation of substrates such as aryl and heteroaryl cyclic and alkyl ketones with substrate/catalyst (S/C) ratios of up to 100,000. The opposite sense of enantioselectivity can be obtained by proper selection of a diamine with a given chirality of the phosphine. The usefulness of the new system has been demonstrated in the asymmetric hydrogenation of a complex synthetic intermediate towards cholesteryl ester transfer protein (CETP) inhibitors at S/C 20,000 on large-scale operation.

A general and efficient method for the synthesis of bulky and structurally diverse P-stereogenic chiral secondary phosphine oxides (SPOs) by using readily available chiral amino alcohol templates is described. These chiral SPOs could be used as chiral building blocks for the synthesis of difficult-to-access bulky P-stereogenic phosphine compounds or ligands for organic catalysis.

A novel class of C-2-substituted oxaphosphole-based monophosphines 1-4 has been synthesized. Palladium complexes derived from these ligands and their C-2-unsubstituted analogs provide general catalysts for amination reactions of challenging aryl and heteroaryl halides with sterically hindered anilines and alkylamines.