Abstract:

To harvest energy from light sources in catalytic asymmetric processes is a formidable challenge towards the development of sustainable methods. However, the design of such transformations is difficult due to the inherit hurdle of combining the short-lived nature of electronically excited states with the stereodefining event promoted by an enantiopure catalyst. Herein, we describe a highly enantioselective protocol for the α-alkylation of aldehydes through the use of a visible light source, which proceeds by means of chiral charge-transfer complexes. Mechanistic evidences are provided.