Water-Promoted Palladium-Catalyzed Asymmetric Ring-Opening of Oxabenzonorbornadienes with Alkoxysilanes

Water-promoted palladium-catalyzed asymmetric ring-opening (ARO) reaction of oxabenzonorbornadienes with a wide variety of alkoxysilanes has been developed in a one-pot fashion, yielding cis-1,2-dihydronaphthalen-1-ols in favourable yields (up to 98%) with gratifying enantioselectivities (up to 98% ee) under mild conditions. To the best of our knowledge, it represents the first example in the ring-opening reactions of oxabicyclic alkenes with alkoxysilanes. Furthermore, the cis-1,2-configuration of product was established by X-ray diffraction analysis, and a possible mechanism for the present catalytic ring-opening reaction was also proposed.