Rhodium-Catalyzed Enantioselective Hydroselenation of Heterobicyclic Alkenes

A highly efficient Rh­(I)/(S)-xyl-Binap catalytic system is developed for the asymmetric hydroselenation of various nonpolar olefins with diselenides. Under these mild reaction conditions, a wide range of heterobicyclic alkenes give selenol-incorporated adducts in excellent enantioselectivities (up to 97%) along with high yields (up to 96%) by overcoming self-promoted racemic hydroselenation. The strategy is also applied for kinetic resolution of unsymmetric oxabenzonorbornadiene.