A convenient enantioselective decarboxylative aldol reaction to access chiral α-hydroxy esters using β-keto acids

We show a convenient decarboxylative aldol process using a scandium catalyst and a PYBOX ligand to generate a series of highly functionalized chiral alpha-hydroxy esters. The protocol tolerates a broad range of beta-keto acids with inactivated aromatic and aliphatic alpha-keto esters. The possible mechanism is rationalized.