Synthesis and Atropo-diastereoselective Ring Cleavage of a [Cp*Ru]-Complexed Biaryl Lactone: Experimental and Computational Investigations†

The planar-chiral biaryl lactone complex 5b is cleaved highly atropo-diastereoselectively by simple O-nucleophiles. Toward H-nucleophiles, it shows a different reactivity behavior consistent with DF calculations using the Fukui function.