Tuning the sense of product stereochemistry in aldol reactions of acetone and aromatic aldehydes in the presence of water with a single chiral catalyst

We report the aldol addition of acetone to aromatic aldehydes in the presence of a large amount of water where the stereochemical outcome of the reactions can be tuned with achiral salt additives using a single proline-derived catalyst. Depending on the nature of the added salt the (R) and (S) enriched products could be obtained. In the reaction of 2-nitrobenzaldehyde with acetone, NaOAc promoted the formation of the (S)-enantiomer (20% ee) while using NH4Cl the (R)-enantiomer was obtained in excess (58% ee). A similar inversion was observed for several other aromatic aldehydes.