Iridium-Catalyzed Enantioselective Synthesis of Allylic Alcohols

Significance

This paper describes the synthesis of allylic alcohols by way of a hydroxide equivalent in synthethically useful yields and high enantiomeric excess. Other methods for allylic alcohol synthesis are often plagued by deprotection problems since conditions which do not tolerate other functional groups are typically required. The authors avoid this by producing a protected alcohol which can be deprotected under mild conditions.