In Situ Generation of Ruthenium Carbonyl Phosphine Complexes as a Versatile Method for Development of Enantioselective C–O Bond Arylation

We report here a method for in situ generation of various ruthenium carbonyl phosphine catalysts for arylation via cleavage of inert aromatic carbon-oxygen bonds. The use of catalyst systems consisting of [RuCl2 (CO)(p-cymene)], CsF, styrene, and phosphines enabled facile screening of phosphine ligands. Asymmetric C-O arylation was also achieved for atropo-enantioselective biaryl synthesis using a chiral monodentate phosphine ligand.