Enantioselective cascade reactions of stable sulfur ylides and nitroolefins through an axial-to-central chirality transfer strategy.

An enantioselective [4 + 1] annulation/rearrangement cascade of stable sulfur ylides and nitroolefins has been developed through an efficient axial-to-central chirality transfer with the use of a chiral BINOL-derived sulfide as a reliable stereocontroller. It can provide pharmaceutically and synthetically important oxazolidinones in high stereoselectivities (up to 96:4 e.r. and >95:5 d.r.). Moreover, this strategy was also successfully applied to the asymmetric [4 + 1]/[3 + 2] cycloaddition cascade of sulfur ylides with alkene-tethered nitroolefins, and the corresponding enantioenriched fused heterocycles (up to 87:13 e.r. and >95:5 d.r.) were obtained in good to excellent yields (54-95% yields).