Carbene-Catalyzed Enantioselective Decarboxylative Annulations to Access Dihydrobenzoxazinones and Quinolones

A direct decarboxylative strategy for the generation of aza-o-quinone methides (aza-o-QMs) by N-heterocyclic carbene (NHC) catalysis has been discovered and explored. This process requires no stoichiometric additives in contrast with current approaches. Aza-o-QMs react with trifluoromethyl ketones through a formal [4+2] manifold to access highly enantioenriched dihydrobenzoxazin-4-one products, which can be converted to dihydroquinolones through an interesting stereoretentive aza-Petasis–Ferrier rearrangement sequence. Complementary dispersion-corrected density functional theory (DFT) studies provided an accurate prediction of the reaction enantioselectivity and lend further insight to the origins of stereocontrol. Additionally, a computed potential energy surface around the major transition structure suggests a concerted asynchronous mechanism for the formal annulation.