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).