This personal viewpoint lays out the development of a silver-catalyzed kinetic resolution
of α-allenic alcohols inspired by the biomimetic synthesis of natural products. The
corresponding selectivity factor (s) indicates that this resolution protocol can deliver chiral allenic alcohols and
2,5-dihydrofurans in high enantioselectivity with synthetically applicable isolated
yields. The broad substrate scope makes it an attractive approach for building synthetically
useful chiral building blocks. From the recent progress in allene chemistry, silver
was considered as an anion metathesis reagent to prepare highly efficient Au catalysts.
Our discovery of the unique reactivity of a chiral silver phosphate should stimulate
more interesting discoveries in this field.
Key words
kinetic resolution - allenic alcohol - chiral silver phosphate - cycloisomerization
- natural products