Carbene-Catalyzed Asymmetric Ring-Opening Reaction of Biaryl Lactams to Access Axially Chiral Biaryls

Axially chiral biaryls represent the most important class of atropisomers, and they widely exist in natural products and biologically active molecules. They also constitute a unique scaffold for chiral ligands and catalysts in organic synthesis. The development of synthetic methods to obtain such chiral compounds has received widespread attention, among which catalytically atroposelective ring-opening of configurationally labile compounds represents one of the most attractive strategies. Various substrates with strained cyclic structures, such as the renowned Bringmann's lactones, can undergo asymmetric transformation into stable atropisomers. Known advancement primarily relies on metal catalyst combined with well-designed chiral ligands, the approaches utilizing organocatalysis as a critical resolution strategy are notably scarce. In this study, we disclosed a N-heterocyclic carbene (NHC)-catalyzed asymmetric ring-opening reaction of biaryl lactams via direct atroposelective nucleophilic activation. The optimized bulky carbene catalyst ensures that the reaction can proceed under mild conditions, affording the desired product with good to excellent yields and atroposelectivity.