A simple metal free highly diastereoselective synthesis of heteroaryl substituted (±) cyclohexanols by a branched domino reaction

A self diastereoselective, simple metal free and efficient branch domino reaction gave multiple heteroaryl substituted (±) cyclohexanols with five chiral centres in >95% yields. The reactions that occur are Claisen Schmidt condensation followed by Michael addition and Aldol reactions of heteroaryl carbaldehydes and acetyl pyridine derivatives. Mechanistic study of the reactions shows excellent self diastereoselectivity (dr > 99%) in the intermediate steps which results selectively in the formation of one set of enantiomers out of sixteen possible enantiomeric pairs. The self diastereoselectivity of reaction in all the steps dominates due to the steric hindrance induced by the bulky heteroaryl groups. The stereochemistry of the synthesized compounds is established using single crystal XRD.