Copper-catalyzed asymmetric hydroamination: A unified strategy for the synthesis of chiral β-amino acid and its derivatives

Abstract

Catalytic asymmetric aza-Michael represents one of the most convenient and atom-economical approaches for the rapid construction of biologically active chiral β-amino acid frameworks. However, the direct enantioselective addition of nitrogen-based nucleophiles to intrinsically low reactivity of α,β- unsaturated carboxylic acid, ester, and amide, as well as simple α,β-unsaturated nitrile, remains a long-standing challenge. Herein, we report a unified Cu-catalyzed asymmetric reversal hydroamination, capable of direct preparation of a series of β-amino acid, ester, amide, and nitrile in a highly regio- and enantioselective manner, without the requirement of traditional preinstallation of stoichiometric quantities of auxiliaries.