Iridium-Catalyzed Regio- and Enantioselective Allylation of Ketone Enolates

Significance

Using the described method, the authors overcome many problems often associated with the alkylation of unstabilized ketone enolates and achieve high reactivity, regioselectivity and enantioselectivity for a wide class of substrates. The key for this reaction was the addition of a combination of fluoride sources (CsF and ZnF₂) that enable the reaction to proceed with high reactivity and selectivity. Without the fluoride source, the reaction did not proceed at all.