Introduction Catecholborane (1 ), known as 1,3,2-benzodioxaborole, is a versatile boron hydride reagent commercially available for synthetic organic chemistry. It is stable towards dry air and easily soluble in organic solvents. Apart from its well-known application as a new hydroborating agent in some transformations,
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it has found a multitude of applications in reduction of various organic functional groups, organoborane-mediated cyclizations, carboxyl activation of carboxylic acids and deprotection of some functional groups. When catecholborane was associated with chiral oxazaborolidine and chiral transition-metal-complex catalysts, a novel way to synthesize chiral alcohols in very high enantioselectivities was presented. Catecholborane can be conveniently prepared by several approaches,
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and the preferred synthesis was the reaction of catechol with borane-tetrahydrofuran or borane-methyl sulfide.
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