Asymmetric rearrangement of racemic epoxides catalyzed by chiral Brønsted acids.

This paper describes a chiral Brønsted acid catalyzed asymmetric 1,2-rearrangement of racemic epoxides via a hydrogen-shift process for the synthesis of chiral aldehydes, and, followed by a reduction, a variety of optically active alcohols can be furnished in moderate yields with up to 50% ee. Especially, a facile one-pot synthesis of chiral alcohols directly from simple alkenes by a sequential epoxidation, rearrangement, and reduction has also been realized.