Kinetic Resolution of β‐Sulfonyl Ketones Through Enantioselective β‐Elimination Using a Cation‐Binding Polyether Catalyst.

In the presence of KF as reagent and a chiral BINOL-derived cation-binding polyether as catalyst, the first asymmetric β-elimination of sulfones of type (I) and (III) is achieved resulting in a kinetic resolution to give the corresponding (R)-sulfones with e.e.′s better than 90%.