A different approach to enantioselective organic synthesis: absolute asymmetric synthesis of organometallic reagents.

Voilà, optical activity: Both enantiomers of 1-chloroindene have been synthesized in high selectivity from solely achiral starting materials, and without using optically active catalysts (see scheme). These symmetry-breaking syntheses provide a proof-of-concept for a new approach to asymmetric synthesis. NCS=N-chlorosuccinimide.