Methods for the direct construction of 1,3-disubstituted planar chiral ferrocenes are elusive. Now, a modular platform enables the construction of planar chirality in 1,3-disubstituted ferrocenes/ruthenocenes via enantioselective relay remote C–H arylation. The strategy involves an initial enantiodetermining ortho-C‒H activation enabled by a Pd(II)/chiral amino-acid ligand, followed by relay to the remote meta-position by a bridgehead-substituted norbornene mediator.
- Lan Zhou
- Hong-Gang Cheng
- Qianghui Zhou