Copper-Catalyzed Enantioselective Construction of Tertiary Propargylic Sulfones

Tertiary propargylic sulfones are of significant importance in organic synthesis and medicinal chemistry, but to date no general asymmetric synthesis approach has been developed. We disclose a versatile copper-catalyzed sulfonylation of propargylic cyclic carbonates using sodium sulfinates that allows the construction of propargylic sulfones featuring elusive quaternary stereocenters. This method provides the first successful example of such an enantioselective propargylic sulfonylation, features high asymmetric induction, wide functional group tolerance, and scalability, and enables attractive product diversification.