Automated Quantum Mechanical Predictions of Enantioselectivity in a Rhodium-Catalyzed Asymmetric Hydrogenation.
Yanfei GuanSteven E WheelerPublished in: Angewandte Chemie (International ed. in English) (2017)
A computational toolkit (AARON: An automated reaction optimizer for new catalysts) is described that automates the density functional theory (DFT) based screening of chiral ligands for transition-metal-catalyzed reactions with well-defined reaction mechanisms but multiple stereocontrolling transition states. This is demonstrated for the Rh-catalyzed asymmetric hydrogenation of (E)-β-aryl-N-acetyl enamides, for which a new C2 -symmetric phosphorus ligand is designed.