.
Angewandte
Communications
Table 2: Substrate scope.
with the chiral disulfonimide 8a (entry 4), which formed the
desired product with an enantiomeric ratio of 72:28.
We next carried out screening of a series of carbamates.
Both rate and enantioselectivity substantially varied with
different carbamates. The reaction with tert-butyl carbamate
(2b) furnished the desired product in only low yield and an
enantioselectivity which was inferior to benzyl carbamate
(Table 1, entry 5). The less bulky methyl carbamate (2c)
reacted well and gave the corresponding product in a high
yield but the enantioselectivity remained poor (entry 6).
Continuing with our screening of carbamates, we then tested
9-fluorenylmethyl carbamate (Fmoc-NH2; 2d). Remarkably,
this reagent has never been investigated, even in non-
enantioselective three-component couplings with aldehydes
and allyltrimethylsilane, despite the fact that it introduces
a common protecting group. Encouragingly, the reaction with
Fmoc-NH2 showed an improvement in the enantioselectivity
and gave the desired product with an enantiomeric ratio of
85:15 and in 80% yield (entry 7).
Having optimized the carbamate component, we focussed
our attention towards modifying the aryl substituents at the
3,3’-position of the disulfonimide catalyst. Catalyst 8b, which
has recently been reported by our group as an efficient
catalyst for hetero-Diels–Alder reactions of aldehydes gave
inferior results compared to catalyst 8a (compare entries 7
and 8 in Table 1). This suggested to us that bulky substituents
at the 3,5-positions of the aryl groups are detrimental to both
reactivity and enantioselectivity of the reaction. Learning
from this result, we next tested catalyst 8c, bearing only
a single CF3 substituent at the 4-position of the 3,3’-aryl
groups. To our delight, this catalyst proved to be highly
enantioselective and furnished the desired product with an
enantiomeric ratio of 96:4 in a yield of 80% upon isolation
(entry 9). We also synthesized the corresponding nitro-
substituted catalyst 8d, which, however, formed the product
with slightly lower enantioselectivity (entry 10). Also,
a decreased enantioselectivity was observed with the more
active catalyst 8e bearing additional fluorine substituents at
the 3,5-positions (entry 11). Considering all these results,
disulfonimide 8c was chosen as the optimal catalyst.
Entry[a]
1
R
Product
Yield [%]
80
e.r.[b,c]
96:4
4d
2
4e
4 f
70
84
98.5:1.5
95.5:4.5
3[d,e]
4
5
4g
4h
66
84
94:6
92:8
6[d,e]
7[f]
4i
4j
4k
80
71
70
95:5
96:4
94:6
8[f]
9[e,g]
4l
83
78
65
92.5:7.5
92:8
10[e,g]
11[g]
4m
4n
91:9
[a] Unless noted otherwise, all reactions were run with aldehyde
(0.1 mmol), Fmoc-NH2 (0.15 mmol), allyltrimethylsilane (0.3 mmol),
and catalyst (10 mol%) in CHCl3 (1.0m) at 188C for 10 d. [b] Determined
by HPLC on a chiral stationary phase. [c] For determination of absolute
configuration, see the Supporting Information. [d] Reaction at 158C.
[e] Reaction was run for 12 d. [f] Used 0.3 mmol of Fmoc-NH2 and
0.6 mmol of allyltrimethylsilane. [g] Used 0.6 mmol of allyltrimethyl-
silane.
We then set out to evaluate the substrate scope for our
new direct asymmetric three-component reaction. Aromatic
aldehydes formed the corresponding homoallylic amines in
high yields and high enantiomeric ratios (Table 2, entries 1–
6). Substituted naphthaldehydes containing electron-donat-
ing as well as electron-withdrawing substituents in the 6-
position served as suitable substrates and furnished the
products in high yields and enantioselectivities (entries 3
and 6). Also, 9-phenanthrene carboxaldehyde could be
employed as the substrate and the corresponding homoallylic
amine was isolated with an excellent enantiomeric ratio of
98.5:1.5 and a yield of 70% (entry 2). A meta-substituted
benzaldehyde as well as benzaldehyde bearing substituents at
both the meta and para-positions also delivered the corre-
sponding products in high yields and enantioselectivities
(entries 4 and 5). Gratifyingly, even aliphatic aldehydes could
be converted into the corresponding homoallylic amines
under these reaction conditions (entries 7–11). For example,
hydrocinnamaldehyde gave the corresponding product in an
excellent enantiomeric ratio of 96:4 and a yield of 71%
(entry 7). p-Methoxy hydrocinnamaldehyde reacted similarly
(entry 8). b-branched aliphatic aldehydes were also well
tolerated and formed the corresponding products in high
yields and good enantioselectivities (entries 9 and 10). Even
an a-branched aliphatic aldehyde (isobutyraldehyde) could
be used as substrate and gave the corresponding product in
good yield and enantioselectivity (entry 11).
To further demonstrate the synthetic utility of our
methodology, the product 4d was oxidatively converted into
the enantioenriched b3-amino acid 9 (Scheme 1). b-Amino
acids[7] such as derivative 9 are important motifs which serve
as precursors for b-lactams, are constituents of several
medicinally important compounds,[8] and most importantly,
serve as monomers in the synthesis of peptidomimetic b-
2574
ꢀ 2013 Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim
Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2013, 52, 2573 –2576