Brønsted acid catalyzed asymmetric reduction of ketones and acyl silanes using chiral anti-pentane-2,4-diol.

Ketones and acyl silanes were reduced to the corresponding alcohols by a simple procedure employing anti-1,3-diol and a catalytic amount (5 mol %) of 2,4-dinitrobenzenesulfonic acid in benzene at reflux. Asymmetric induction reached up to >99% ee when a chiral pentane-2,4-diol of 97% ee was used.