Asymmetric Kinetic Resolution of 2‐Aryl Oxetanes by Dinuclear Titanium Radical Catalysis
2-Aryl oxetanes are valuable strained-ring synthons, yet a broadly useful chemical kinetic resolution of this substrate class has remained largely unavailable. Here we report a dinuclear (salen)titanium-catalyzed radical ring-opening strategy for the kinetic resolution of 2-aryl oxetanes under mild conditions. The reaction accommodates diverse aryl-, heteroaryl-, and drug-conjugated substrates, delivering enantioenriched oxetanes with high regio- and enantioselectivity. The resulting oxetanes serve as versatile chiral platforms and enable concise, modular, and enantio-retentive access to pharmaceutically relevant targets, including (S)-Atomoxetine, (S)-Nisoxetine, and (S)-Fluoxetine. Mechanistic studies support a Curtin-Hammett-type stereochemical model in which diastereomeric Ti-oxetane intermediates, differentiated by an unusual ligand-substrate C-H···π interaction, display distinct stability/reactivity relationships during C─O bond homolysis. Beyond establishing a broadly useful kinetic resolution of 2-aryl oxetanes, this work reveals an unusual mode of attractive ligand-substrate recognition in salen-titanium radical catalysis.
Authors
- Jingda Liu
- Li‐Ping Xu (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3967-4921)
- Jie Jiang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5210-6569)
- Yongqiang Zhang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4702-5419)
- Huaxi Sun
- Hui‐Mei Jiang
Institutions
- Shandong University (CN)
- University of Jinan (CN)
- State Key Laboratory of Microbial Technology
Publication Details
- Journal
- Angewandte Chemie International Edition
- Published
- 2026-08-17
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1002/anie.9795533
- Primary Topic
- Radical Photochemical Reactions
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 0.00
Funders
- National Natural Science Foundation of China
- Natural Science Foundation of Shandong Province
- Shenzhen Science and Technology Innovation Program