Cinchona alkaloid amides/dialkylzinc catalyzed enantioselective desymmetrization of aziridines with phosphites
The first highly enantioselective desymmetrization of aziridines with phosphites has been developed. Excellent yields and enantioselectivities were observed for the reaction with various aziridines using a new class of readily accessible chiral catalysts derived from 9-amino-9-deoxy-epi-cinchona alkaloids. In studies probing the reaction mechanism, we observed some complexes for the cinchona alkaloid amide-Zn(II) by ESI-MS analysis.