Diastereo- and Enantioselective Chemodivergent Three-Component Cascade Reactions via Gold and Carbene Sequential Catalysis

Abstract

This study investigates the feasibility and inherent benefits of combining transition-metal- and organoasymmetric-catalyzed reactions in one pot. The reported transformation features Au-catalyzed tandem hydration–oxacyclization and NHC-catalyzed enantioselective annulation, effectively converting simple skipped diynones, water, and enals into highly diastereo- and enantioenriched fused heterocycles. Furthermore, the chemoselectivity controlled by the base is particularly noteworthy, enabling facile access to ε-lactones or spiro heterocycles from the same set of starting materials.