Highly enantioselective aerobic oxidative cross-coupling of 2-naphthols with broad substrate scope was achieved using an iron(salan) complex as the catalyst. Enantiomeric excesses of the products ranged from 87 to 95%. The scope of the cross-coupling reaction was found to be different from that of the homocoupling reaction under the same reaction conditions.
Egami, Hiromichi; Katsuki, Tsutomu, Journal of the American Chemical Society, 2009, vol. 131, p. 6082 - 6083