Chemists have developed a new catalytic method to perform a classic chemical rearrangement—the [1,2]-Wittig rearrangement of allylic ethers—with precise control over the three-dimensional shape, or “handedness,” of the resulting molecules. Traditionally thought to proceed via a radical mechanism, the new process uses a clever cascade: it first performs an enantioselective [2,3]-rearrangement, followed by a base-promoted step that breaks and reforms bonds in a highly specific way, ultimately delivering the final product with excellent stereochemical purity.
Why it might matter to you:
For a medicinal chemist, this represents a powerful new tool for constructing complex, chiral molecular scaffolds, which are the foundation of many modern drugs. The ability to reliably install specific three-dimensional geometry at key points in a molecule can directly influence its biological activity and selectivity. This methodology could streamline the synthesis of novel chemical libraries for screening or provide a more efficient route to specific target compounds in drug discovery programs.
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