Iridium-catalyzed asymmetric cascade dearomative allylation/acyl transfer rearrangement: access to chiral N -substituted 2-pyridones.

Iridium-catalyzed dearomative allylation/acyl transfer rearrangement has been developed using easily available 2-pyridinyl benzoates and vinyl ethylene carbonate. This protocol enabled the expedient synthesis of a variety of chiral N -substituted 2-pyridones in good to high yields with excellent enantioselectivity. It has the advantages of high atom economy, wide substrate scope, gram-scale synthesis, and versatile synthetic transformations.