Towards asymmetric Au-catalyzed hydroxy- and alkoxycyclization of 1,6-enynes

The efficiency of a Au(III)/chiral ligand system has been studied. The association of several chiral mono- and bidentate phosphanes with gold has been tested in the formal addition of an oxygen nucleophile to an alkene followed by a cyclization process, namely the hydroxycyclization reaction of 1,6-enynes. The use of (R)-4-MeO-3,5-(t-Bu)2-MeOBIPHEP ligand led to clean cycloisomerizations and afforded the highest enantiomeric excesses. The enantiomeric excesses were highly dependant on the substrate/nucleophile combination. A 31P NMR study of the catalytic species tends to prove that Au(III) catalyst may be reduced to Au(I) intermediate in the presence of phosphanes.