Highly enantioselective phenylacetylene addition to aromatic ketones catalyzed by cinchona alkaloid-aluminum complexes.

The catalytic asymmetric addition of phenylacetylene to aromatic ketones is reported. The catalyst, generated from commercially available Cinchona alkaloids and industrially available triethylaluminum, gives the expected tertiary alcohols with good enantiomeric excess (70-89%) and yields (60-83%). No previous case has been reported successfully using triethylaluminum as a Lewis acid in the asymmetric alkynylation of carbonylic derivatives, and thus we provide a new method to obtain optically active tertiary propargyl alcohols.