A highly enantioselective desymmetric strategy was developed for the synthesis of enantioenriched triarylmethanes via palladium-catalyzed carbonylation reactions of six-membered cyclic diaryliodonium salts with CO gas and alcohols/amines. This methodology demonstrated wide substrate generality and functional group compatibility under mild conditions. Comprehensive kinetic studies and nonlinear effect studies were conducted to elucidate the reaction mechanism. Notably, obviously different in vitro anti-inflammatory performances on inhibition of NO production were observed for two enantiomers of selected triarylmethanes, highlighting the necessity for pharmacological evaluation of a single stereoisomer in drug development.
Chen et al. (Mon,) studied this question.