A Chiral Primary Amine Thiourea Catalyst for the Highly Enantioselective Direct Conjugate Addition of α,α‐Disubstituted Aldehydes to Nitroalkenes

Abstract

Dual activation: The bifunctional primary amine thiourea catalyst 1 promotes the highly enantioselective direct conjugate addition of α-branched aldehydes to nitroalkenes (see scheme). Cooperative activation of both the nucleophile and electrophile allows the use of mild reaction conditions and provides access to a wide variety of adducts with vicinal quaternary and tertiary stereogenic centers (>90 % ee). Supporting information for this article is available on the WWW under http://www.wiley-vch.de/contents/jc_2002/2006/z602221_s.pdf or from the author. Please note: The publisher is not responsible for the content or functionality of any supporting information supplied by the authors. Any queries (other than missing content) should be directed to the corresponding author for the article.