Asymmetric Arylative Dearomatization of β‐Naphthols Catalyzed by a Chiral Phosphoric Acid

An enantioselective arylative dearomatization reaction of β‐naphthols with quinone monoimides has been developed for the first time using a chiral phosphoric acid as the catalyst, the desired enantioenriched cyclohexadienones were prepared with excellent yields and enantioselectivities by a domino Michael addition and aromatization process (up to 99 % yield, up to 98 %  ee ). This process is operationally simple and readily scaled up, as well as a broad substrate scope which includes 1‐substituted‐2‐naphthols with/without 3‐substituents. Furthermore, this organocatalytic procedure allows the lowering of catalyst loading to 0.5 mol % without considerable loss in reactivity and enantioselectivity.