Chiral phosphoric acid catalyzed redox deracemization of triarylmethanes

Described here is the first deracemization of triaryl-substituted carbon stereocenters, which is in contrast to the well-established processes to deracemize monoaryl- and diaryl-substituted ones. This one-pot redox process involves in situ generation of a para-quinone methide intermediate followed by asymmetric reduction by chiral phosphoric acid catalysis. A wide range of highly enantioenriched triarylmethanes could be generated with high efficiency under mild conditions.