If, as a synthetic chemist, you want to invert the configuration of an alcohol in which the OH group is at a chiral centre, then the Mitsunobu reaction has been a stalwart for many years. Now a catalytic version has been published, [1] along with a proposed mechanism. Here I apply computation as a reality check to see what the energetics of this mechanism might be.
References
- R.H. Beddoe, K.G. Andrews, V. Magné, J.D. Cuthbertson, J. Saska, A.L. Shannon-Little, S.E. Shanahan, H.F. Sneddon, and R.M. Denton, "Redox-neutral organocatalytic Mitsunobu reactions", Science, vol. 365, pp. 910-914, 2019. http://dx.doi.org/10.1126/science.aax3353